The market-based approach to school reform says that competition for student enrollment will make schools find ways to improve.

That sounds good. Schools work hard, children learn more, we all benefit. Right?

Some schools do react to competition, but not necessarily by getting better. The board of education of the Willow Brook schools in southeast Michigan voted 7-1 to spend $65,000--not on bonus pay for teachers or new books but on ... radio ads touting the merits of the schools.

Now I'm not going to get too worked up about this and say that advertising is always wrong. Advertising to inform and persuade consumers is part and parcel of commerce. But the competitive pressures facing Michigan schools are not as strong as those faced by sellers of toothpaste, cars, or anything else.

Of course government-run schools, such as those in Willow Brook, are not like most commercial businesses in another way: they're not locked into a rigid union scale and culture that makes structural change very difficult. And they don't have the power of government behind them.

Still, I suppose progress comes slowly in the world of K-12 education. Maybe "product improvement" will be the next big reform.