The definition goes on to say that there are two defining characteristics of a public good: .
i) non-rivalry; being consumed by one person does not decrease the availability to others.
ii) non-excludability; once the good is being distributed, it is impossible to stop consumption even if the user has not paid for it.
By this definition, a public good would be something like a streetlight. Education can be provided to one person without being provided to all others, eg you can only fit a certain number of people in a lecture theatre. There are instances where you could not stop people being educated, but there are also instances where education is not available to all because it is available to one, for example private piano lessons. As one person is using the tutor, that tutor is not able to broadcast a lesson on TV to everyone.
Education in this instance does not fit the definition of a public good in any instance.
However, education does fit the criteria for a merit good. Biz/Ed online defines a merit good as: a product which consumers may undervalue but which the government believes is "good" for consumers. Merit goods would be under-provided in a pure free-market economy. This is because they have external benefits that people would not take into account when they made their decisions about how much to consume. .
It will be assumed that public good, is intended as its" meaning as a merit good.
The Biz/Ed glossary does not define commodity, but gives the following: commodities include such things as coal, oil, metals, precious metals and so on. In this instance, a commodity will be defined as a tradable good in a free market, available to those who can afford it, and with no discrimination between those who can afford it for access.
Following this, if education was provided as a public good; it would be available to all, without discrimination. Without charge removes the financial bias aspect, and as it is non-depletable, there would be no need or cause to stop anyone from participating.
