School-business analogy is off

Thomas Zachek:

Schools are not like businesses.

Analogies drive our thinking. It can be helpful to see complex or unfamiliar concepts in terms of the simple or familiar. But analogies also can be faulty and deceptive.

One of the most common, yet most misleading, analogies in current vogue is the notion that schools are like businesses or should be. Even school administrators who should know better talk about "the business model."

Schools are fundamentally unlike businesses, and what applies to one doesn't necessarily apply to the other.

Businesses are funded by revenue they generate, and their success is defined and measured by their profit. Schools are funded by an outdated and problematic revenue formula based on property taxes. A highly successful school may be just as hurting for revenue as a poor one. Consequently, schools are beholden to taxpayers in a way that no business is. What business has ever had to beg the public for permission to modernize or add on?

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 6, 2013 1:50 AM
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