Word: shoes
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...public shoe system, by contrast, was subsidized regardless of the quality and desirability of its wares, for its customers did not have the option of going elsewhere...
Moreover, since the public shoe system was a large, impersonal, centralized government agency, it was not flexible enough to respond to consumer needs and only issued one style and size of shoe. While the affluent were wearing shoes that were right for them, the poor and much of the middle class had to limp along in shoes that were too big, too small or the wrong style. Only occasionally did the product suit the customer...
Some middle-class people could have afforded to move up into the world of private shoe stores, but the taxes they were forced to pay to support the public shoe system kept their income too low for this. Worst of all, those dependent on the public shoe system were required to patronize the branch in their neighborhood, even if it was in bad repair, with broken windows, damaged goods and thugs waiting outside...
...president disappointed them. All he meant by "reform" was permission to patronize different branches of the public shoe system. He claimed this would improve the system through "managed competition." He failed to explain how such "competition" could significantly affect the quality of a branch of the system when all branches sold the same product and most of the consumers had no bargaining power...
...terms of the story, this would mean giving the people money to go buy the right kind of shoes from private stores instead of issuing them all the same kind of shoe. At present, a government peddling one-size-fits-all education is like the prince making the rounds with the glass slipper, satisfying the lucky Cinderella who wears the right size but leaving everyone else sitting in the ashes...