A broader conception of school choice

Historically, debates about educational choice have wrestled with big, unresolved tensions that lie at the heart of American life, having to do with individual rights, community obligations, public and private interests, religious freedoms, and more. But in recent years, school reformers have tended to talk about choice as though it referred only to vouchers and charter schools, which provide benefits to a small number of individual children, while doing precious little for the larger community. Further, these approaches leave the greatest amount of choice in the hands of affluent parents, who are able to choose their schools by moving to exclusive neighborhoods. Vouchers and charter schools do nothing to address this imbalance.