Educational Marketing and the Public Schools: Policies, Practices, and Problems

Drawing from the research literature, the objectives of this article are to analyze the marketing concept and to illustrate its application to public school educational systems. Within these systems, there exists a crisis of confidence resulting in patterns of failed bond initiatives, increased political interventions, parent revolts, and community disenchantment. The inability of our schools to develop effective marketing techniques and strategies has rendered them relatively impotent in their struggles to counter the conditions of the crisis. This article identifies and analyzes the natural market forces that create bridges and/or barriers between schools and communities Private sector marketing strategies are proposed as means of establishing more effective school-community exchanges and ultimately more productive working relationships.