Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities could have voucher programs t
ID: 1189160 • Letter: R
Question
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities could have voucher programs that give money directly to parents, and the parents can then choose between competing schools: public and private. The idea for promoting such a ruling was to create competition among schools. As with businesses, schools were expected to improve their products (how effectively they teach) to win students from competitors. Supposedly, that would mean an improvement in all schools, private and public, and would benefit many students. Do you believe that such economic principles apply in both private and public organizations?
Explanation / Answer
Competition among public and private schools to perform better is way different from the competition among public and private organisations. Implementing organisational competition is not an easy task. In organizations, once the competition atmosphere is created, rules will have to be defined for conducting competitions. Competitions have to be managed properly and track the outcomes. Competition has to be created among other management priorities as well.
Still there exists benefits of applying competition in both private and public organisation. Government has been increasingly encouraging private firms to compete for contracts to provide services once restricted to public sources. This involvement of private firms into public sector is known as competitive sourcing. Government considers competitive sourcing as an effective policy tool for driving change in organizations, improving performance and restraining costs. Nevertheless, cost savings are not the only benefit. A review A need for greater flexibility, innovations in private sector and access to skill-set not available in-house are the major factors in a state government’s decision to outsource and implement competitive sourcing of services.
Competitive sourcing does not give direct preference for private sector providers. Also, it does not assume that government workers are less productive. In fact, it allows government managers to determine which combination of private services and public service will provide the best results in terms of price and value.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.