How Education Savings Accounts Enable Disruptive Innovation

Here's a paradox. Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs. They're meant to fuel innovation. But some argue that they're actually distorting the market, raising costs and slowing innovation in micro schools. And I get the concern. Government subsidies often do just that. Look at higher ed, for example, where easy money focused on access at the expense of outcomes. But here's the catch. Schooling in the United States is already one giant subsidy. You could say public schools are compulsory and for the most part, feel free to families. And that free part makes it almost impossible for true disruptive innovation of schooling to take hold. ESAs change that equation. They give families spending power and choice. There are now real trade offs in play. When parents start weighing value and cost, then real market forces start to emerge, and that's when disruptive innovation is possible. So it's not in spite of ESAs, but because of them.