Competition is the essential element in improving the price and quality of goods and services. It's a curious thing to me how many business leaders believe this principle until the topic turns to education. For some reason, they treat education as if it were immune to the benefits of competition. They defend the current system rather than embracing an approach that would allow parents to choose schools that best meet their children's needs.
If competition in education were allowed, schools would have to do as other service providers do - attract and keep customers, in this case students and their parents, by constantly improving their services and finding new ways to meet the needs of their students - or risk losing those students to other providers.
Knowing someone else could draw away our customers is discomforting, but it's that very discomfort that drives us to pay attention to our customers - and try to meet their changing needs. It is naive to think the education service sector is any different. The result would be better service for the students and better value for taxpayers.