School Choice vs. School Choice
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- America's Current School Choice System
- Are Bad Schools Really at Fault?
- Choice Outside the Housing Market: Types of Choice Programs
- Choice Outside the Housing Market: Effects on Student Performance
- Choice Outside the Housing Market: Effects on Public Schools
- Choice Outside the Housing Market: Effects on Racial Integration
- Choice Outside the Housing Market: Effects on Teacher Pay
- Conclusion
- Notes
Conclusion
"Students trapped in failing schools have the most to gain from a different kind of school choice."
America has a nationwide school choice system that rations educational opportunity through the housing market. In this market, failing schools have become concentrated in low-income, inner-city urban areas where housing prices are lowest. Students trapped in these failing schools consistently register the nation's poorest academic performances. Thus they have the most to gain from a different kind of school choice and the most to lose under the status quo.
Evidence is mounting that allowing parents to choose a child's school improves the child's test scores. Evidence is also mounting that when public schools are challenged by the prospect of losing students because of the availability of school choice, the academic performance of both the students who leave and those who remain in the public schools improves.
John C. Goodman is President of the National Center for Policy Analysis, and Matt Moore is a policy analyst at the NCPA
NOTE: Nothing written here should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the National Center for Policy Analysis or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress.
