Why public schools hate free market capitalism
Public schools can’t praise free market capitalism because it’s a direct threat to their stranglehold on the so-called education system.
Public schools pretend to prepare kids for the “real world.” But the one system they never touch honestly—free market capitalism—is the very one that actually mirrors the real world. And they avoid it for one reason: It competes with them.
The near-monopoly of public education
Public schools are government-run near-monopolies. Funded through taxes, they get paid whether they succeed or fail. No accountability, no consequences. Test scores drop, as Unskool notes over at Substack, violence increases, bureaucracy bloats, and the money keeps flowing.
Now compare that to a market-driven school. They have to earn every student, and if parents don’t like the service, they walk. In the market, bad schools close. In the public system? Bad schools expand.
Why free markets terrify the bureaucratic system
Free markets bring accountability. They force institutions to prove value every single day. That’s the nightmare scenario for public education.
Imagine parents comparing options side by side. And imagine a public school losing students and funding because it’s ineffective. The system would collapse under its own mediocrity.
Instead of adapting, schools demonize markets. They label “for-profit” education as predatory, and spread the fib that capitalism in education means exploitation.
In reality, the only exploitation is forcing families to pay taxes for schools they don’t want while blocking them from better options. Not to mention in my home state for the 2024-25 school year, the price per pupil exceeded $16,000.
Who’s the exploitive party again?
An indoctrinating crusade against capitalism
The hostility runs deeper than economics. Public schools indoctrinate kids to distrust markets altogether. Textbooks glorify government “solutions” while smearing capitalism as greed. Teachers echo the line that profit is evil, while ignoring that everything from food to housing to technology depends on profit to exist.
This isn’t an accident. It’s survival. If students understood how markets worked, they’d recognize the scam they’re trapped in. They’d ask why their schools can’t deliver results while private models thrive on slimmer budgets and stricter accountability, despite outright demonization.
When competition enters the picture
Open the doors to real competition and the game changes. Parents could choose homeschooling pods, charter schools, apprenticeships, trade schools—whatever fits their kids best. Schools would have to innovate or die.
Teachers would rise and fall based on merit, not tenure. Students would actually see their education tailored to their future instead of one-size-fits-few bureaucracy.
That’s the real reason public schools and their partners in higher academia hate free markets. Not because markets fail kids, but because markets succeed—and success would expose decades of government failure.
The free market would destroy public schools
Free market capitalism reveals public school filth, and that’s why the system works so hard to make sure students never see the truth: The free market is the one place where results matter because if you oversell and underdeliver, you’re out.
And I wanted to do my part, creating a fictionalized version of what free market education looks like in my young adult fantasy series, Arcane Elemental Academy. Arcane’s an umbrella institution featuring 32 schools in constant competition for students.
If one school acts predatory and exploits its customers, it won’t be long until it’s out of the game and another school takes its place.
But the series itself is for entertainment purposes first, and you can check out the first three chapters today and see if you’re worthy enough to meet Yote Diamondback and join the girl on her journey to the anarcho-capitalist Northern Region, where Arcane awaits.
