Full disclosure - I have not read Charles Fishman's book*, however I did listen to a lengthy interview he gave soon after its publication. One of the points he made was that Walmart's founder discovered that American consumers would drive a considerable distance to save a penny, engendering the constant mantra of savings, price rollbacks, sales and discounts. Every commercial transaction has two principal factors, price and service or in other words, price and quality. The Walmart Effect largely removed quality from consideration.
I remember Fishman giving the example of a VCR (remember those?). Customers were going into "Quality VCRs for Life Ltd" and accosting the clerk, "How can you charge $200 for that VCR? I can get one at Walmart for $60." They then of course bought the cheaper model at the other store. What was missing from that conversation was that the $60 VCR would last 1 - 2 years and would need frequent replacement if not also servcing and repairs, whereas the $200 VCR would last for 10 or more years and would not require any attention during that time.
Price and sevice/quality are typically directly related. When one goes up, so does the other and so when you choose a lower price, you can expect to receive poorer service or a lower quality. Airline pricing shows this; tickets are now broken into every possible service so you pay separately for a seat, the seat type or location, choosing the seat, bags, drinks and snacks etc. As a result, changing a ticket or speaking to a person rather than booking online through an algorithm incurs extra fees.
We see this focus everywhere and it is rare to see advertising without prices; typically the price dominates. Posters in superarkets rarely contain more than the product name in a smaller with the price screaing out significantly much larger. Even in education, price leads the conversation. The director of a small business coaching institute noted in a local radio show recently that he is rarely asked, "What does this course entail?" or "How will this course prepare me for business success?". Instead, he is asked about the course fee, and typically this is the first and only question.
I was reminded of this yesterday when reading a post in a neighborhood chat group. A parent I remember from his loud and unsupported complaints a few years ago was again complaining loudly. In the last go-round, he criticized the costs of private education and asserting that a local school was suspiciously overpriced, the fees could not possibly ever be justified, clearly someone was becoming obscenely rich etc. He was proud that he possessed such discrimination and discernment that he could see through this racket and not be duped, and that he was sending his child(ren) to a public charter school. He could of course afford the fees so money was not the issue, and he said or implied that parents at the private school were intellectually inferior for making that choice.
His current complaints are that under covid, the charter school is sending home two written tasks a day which take his child(ren) perhaps 15 minutes to complete. and providing two 15-minute online sessions with their teacher each week. Meanwhile, his neighbor's children were receiving written, audio and video materials every day coverbing all thier subjects (even PE!), had online class and group meetings every day, had daily group interactions with their teachers and regular individual sessions, all backed up with a school-based online platform, messaging and email. It was so wrong and so unfair and he was irate and who was going to join him in challenging this terrible injustice?
The reason for the difference? His neighbors' children were at the same private school he had so derided. They did have classes of 15 - 18 students instead of 25 - 30, but class-size alone does not explain the difference. The private school parents were paying for a service, a quality of education and of experience.
The mistake this parent had made was his focus on the price of the private school, instead of asking what is provided for that price. So far in the chat, no-one is joiing him in his campaign however many parents are sharing what they are receiving at this as well as at some other private schools in the city. I will write on this later because much of the dicussion centers on "what is education?", however some examples :
- basketball : the prive school offered multiple teams at different levels; the charter school, one varsity team.
- soccer : the private school offered multiple teams at different levels; the charter school, none.
- field trips : the private school conducted multiple trips for all grades, all over the region; the charter school, none.
- music : the private school had three choirs, high school, middle school, elementary school; the charter school had one choir two years ago which stopped when the teacher left.
- languages : the private school provided two languages from G1 with AP programs in both; the charter school offered one language from G9 only as an elective and most students were heritage speakers, it was seen as a low status subject and the AP results were poor.
- standardized tests : the private school does not participate in the state tests, but does do international tests and is ranked in the top fourth worldwide; the charter school took the state tests each year, is ranked as average in a state which is in the bottom fourth in the US.
Clearly Mission, governance and leadership are reflected in these and the other examples cited, but the connection between price and service/quality is clear. Not all non-public schools offer great value for money, not all charter schools are as relatively poor. However when looking at any purchase, be it a VCR or education, the question should not be, "How much is "x"?". Instead, it should be, "What do I get for "$x"?".
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Further reading
*https://www.amazon.com/Wal-Mart-Effect-Powerful-Works-Transforming/dp/0143038788
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/walmart-effect.asp
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