[wpietri]

Nah. The customer model is frequently corrosive to mission-driven organizations. Imagine it in medicine, for example. If I asked my doctor to prescribe me morphine because I'm the customer and I want it, they'd refuse. They should.

Education has a deep societal purpose, especially in democracies and advanced economies. Its consumers are generally immature, and are definitionally people who are ignorant about important things. Education must not be structured solely around whatever a 19-year-old happens to want.

[jessaustin]

"What the [parents] want" may not be the best model for education, but it's certainly not the worst in regular use. Actually, that's true in medicine as well.