Public Schools Are Competing. That’s the Point.

There’s a moment in every disruption when the incumbents start acting like startups. They get nicer, flashier, and more responsive. They begin to notice you not only have preferences, you have options to exercise that demand.

That moment is now happening in K-12 education.

A recent New York Times piece reports on a new trend: public school districts investing in marketing and parent outreach. They’re rebranding, launching ad campaigns, and even hiring outreach coordinators to knock on doors like politicians in a tight race. They’re giving out nearly $1,000 bounties for anyone who can attract families back.

And while some are alarmed - “Why are public schools spending money on advertising?!” - I’m here to say: this is exactly the point. It’s not a bug of school choice. It’s the feature.

Competition Isn't a Cage Match

Too often, education debates caricature competition as a zero-sum cage match: four schools enter, one school leaves. But that’s not how competition works in any real-world sector.

When you can’t use the force of government, truancy laws, and other top-down mechanisms to capture customers, you are left with only the ability to compete over service, convenience, price, and experience. We saw this after airlines were deregulated. We saw this after mail delivery was de-monopolized to allow for companies like UPS and FedEx. We saw this in telecom when that was deregulated. In each case, de-monopolization led to differentiation. Brands carved out niches and consumers found services that actually matched their preferences. And consumers benefitted enormously.

What we’re seeing in education is the emergence of that same market dynamic. As families gain the power to leave, via ESAs, low-cost options like micro- and hybrid schools, and homeschooling, districts are realizing they can no longer take enrollment for granted. And so, they’re doing something radical: they’re treating families like customers.

Exit, Voice, and Loyalty

This is Albert O. Hirschman 101. In his seminal theory, Hirschman argued that consumers have two ways to respond to dissatisfaction: exit (leave) or voice (complain). In monopoly systems, you don’t have exit, so your only option is voice, which often gets ignored. But when exit becomes viable, voice suddenly matters again.

And here’s the kicker: loyalty becomes earned.

When families can walk away, schools must ask: Why should they stay? That’s when organizations shift from serving the system to serving the customer. They start identifying underserved segments. They iterate. They build trust. They find their niche.

Yes, that means marketing. But it also means listening. It means design. It means innovation.

In other words: it means schooling starts looking like every other sector that prioritizes people over bureaucracy.

The New Normal

One of the districts profiled in the NYTimes article is Orange County, FL, where Orlando is located. Earlier this year, the Orlando Sentinel covered the district’s response to the projections that they were going to see a 3,100-student decrease in enrollment. In that piece, the district superintendent noted that the district needed to be more competitive and look into district-run charter schools and microschools. “In order to stay competitive, we’re going to have to be innovative,” the superintendent said. “We’re going to have to change how public education looks.”

This. Is. The. Point.

There are many, many well-intentioned reformers who for years have tried to sway districts to adopt this perspective without having to open them up to that *icky* school choice stuff. I have said then and I will say now that the only reason districts are feeling compelled to do these things is because of the threat of losing families to those options. It is not because of really great white papers or the two hours every two weeks that got carved out for consultants to come in and do a redesign effort. It is because parents now have more of an ability to exit.

That’s a huge cultural shift. And it’s one that would never have happened under the old system, because it didn’t have to.

School choice doesn’t just introduce new options. It reshapes the behavior of existing ones. It forces everyone to ask: What are we offering? For whom? And why should they choose us?

That’s not a problem, that’s progress.