In recent years, new issues in public services and budgeting have grown to be common realities. The debate over how much control the government should maintain or yield to more decentralized parties is of continual interest in the media, on Capitol Hill and at the grassroots level. One issue which is involved in the controversy is this concept of privatizing education. While the public school system has long been a source of debate and controversy, privatization is the newest idea to emerge from current endeavors to reform the American public school system and is a concept that often attracts decaying inner-city school systems in hopes of refurbishing themselves through privatization. .
A significant portion of the population feels that schools would run more efficiently and with better results if privately run companies were to take them over. They feel that with the existing large, obstructing bureaucracy, the government is simply unable to provide what is necessary to support a successful school system. The proponents of privatized school systems have long maintained that governments are not as knowledgeable about individual school environments as the owners of a specific private subsidized school would be about a school's circumstances and needs. Proponents of privatization believe that the government's role should become merely that of regulator and given that private schools do not face the political constraints that the municipal governments face , they would be more able to adapt to change. Since the operation of public schools is more bureaucratic and centralized than private subsidized schools, it is expected to inhibit rather than promote educational innovation. Private schools, being less bureaucratic and more decentralized, are expected to be more efficient organizations and to have a better perspective than their public school counterparts. They are also expected to provide a greater incentive and opportunity to come up with innovative programs in order to stay competitive.