tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/school-choice-758/articlesSchool choice – The Conversation2023-09-28T05:39:02Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134332023-09-28T05:39:02Z2023-09-28T05:39:02ZIn fractious debate, GOP candidates find common ground on cause of inflation woes and need for school choice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550803/original/file-20230928-19-kzxcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2634%2C1825&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy debate the finer points.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/republican-presidential-candidates-florida-gov-ron-desantis-news-photo/1705132466?adppopup=true">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>It was a night in which even “<a href="https://www.reaganfoundation.org/education/virtual-learning-hub/the-great-communicator/">the great communicator</a>” himself may have struggled to be heard.</em></p>
<p><em>At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on Sept. 27, 2023, seven Republican candidates looking to become the leading challenger to the absent GOP front-runner Donald Trump <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/27/1201848640/second-republican-debate-california">interrupted, cross-talked and bickered</a> – often to the exasperation of the presidential debate moderators.</em></p>
<p><em>And yet, between the heated exchanges, important economic and business issues were discussed – from national debt and government shutdowns to labor disputes and even school choice. One thing the candidates agreed on: They aren’t fans of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/2023/08/15/what-is-bidenomics-president-biden-s-economic-philosophy-explained/e9ba8398-3b9b-11ee-aefd-40c039a855ba_story.html">Bidenomics</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listening in for The Conversation were economists <a href="https://www.gonzaga.edu/school-of-business-administration/faculty/detail/herzogr">Ryan Herzog</a> of Gonzaga University and University of Tennessee’s <a href="https://web.utk.edu/%7Eccarrut1/">Celeste K. Carruthers</a>. Here are their main takeaways from the debate.</em></p>
<h2>Inflation talk assigns blame, falls flat on solutions</h2>
<p><strong>Ryan Herzog, Gonzaga University</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls/fox-news-poll-voters-white-house-doing-more-harm-than-good-inflation">most recent Fox News survey</a> showed that 91% of Americans are worried about inflation and 80% about rising housing costs. I tuned into the second GOP debate hoping to hear how the candidates would solve these problems. I was left disappointed. </p>
<p>Not a single candidate mentioned rising housing costs, and few even acknowledged inflation. Given how much the issue has dominated the news, I assumed the candidates would mention it more than the <a href="https://rollcall.com/2023/08/24/transcript-gop-presidential-hopefuls-debate-in-milwaukee">eight times</a> they did in the prior debate. I was wrong. </p>
<p>First, let’s check some inflation facts. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley claimed that the average household is spending US$7,000 more per year on groceries and gas because of inflation. I believe she also meant to include <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/11/economy/inflation-rate-spending/index.html">housing costs</a>. The latest data shows the annual inflation for food at home – as opposed to restaurant meals – is rising less than 3% per year. While that’s up 24% <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=19mVB">since the start of the pandemic</a>, it’s far below what you’d need for an increase of nearly $600 per month. </p>
<p>Next, former Vice President Mike Pence said that recent wage gains have not kept up with inflation. But according to the most recent data, average wage growth has actually <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/business/economy/wage-growth-inflation.html">outpaced inflation</a>. Indeed, workers in lower-wage industries that are seeing labor shortages, such as the leisure and hospitality sector, have seen <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/29/low-income-wages-employment-00097135">very substantial pay increases</a>. </p>
<p>Nearly every candidate blamed inflation on <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/government-spending-fuels-inflation-covid-relief-pandemic-debt-federal-reserve-stimulus-powell-biden-stagflation-11645202057">excessive federal spending</a>. Under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the total level of U.S. government debt increased by nearly $8 trillion and $4.5 trillion, <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=18YJx">respectively</a>. As expected, most candidates proposed cutting government spending and taxes to help struggling families. But it’s unclear whether those policies, taken together, would be effective at lowering inflation.</p>
<p>The candidates also agreed on the need to promote U.S. energy independence – through drilling, fracking and coal – to promote low and stable inflation. But while reducing energy costs would support lower inflation, there was zero discussion of how new technologies like artificial intelligence could be used to fight inflation – for example, by improving productivity. In the end, most candidates resorted to old arguments and avoided debate on 21st-century solutions.</p>
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<h2>School choice is common refrain, but evidence on impact is mixed</h2>
<p><strong>Celeste K. Carruthers, University of Tennessee</strong> </p>
<p>Before a commercial break midway through the debate, moderators teased viewers to return for questions on education in the U.S. It’s understandable that voters would want to hear what candidates have to say on the issue. Younger students have <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/">a long way to go</a> to recover from COVID-era learning losses, and many families are dissatisfied with public education to the point that they are <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/where-kids-went-nonpublic-schooling-and-demographic-change-during-pandemic">leaving public schools</a> for home school and private school options. The education portion of the debate ended up being a short exchange, however, with more focus on immigration, inflation, border security, foreign policy and the opioid epidemic. </p>
<p>One common theme across candidates was at least a brief mention of school choice. School choice describes a variety of different policies that give the parents of pre-K-12 students more options for where they send their kids to school. These options can include charter schools, magnet schools, public schools outside of a student’s school zone or in another district, or even private schools. </p>
<p>Gov. Haley voiced a <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/school-vouchers-next-great-leap-forward">commonly held view</a> among school choice supporters that providing students with more schooling options improves education by encouraging competition. Gov. DeSantis referenced “universal school choice” in his home state of Florida, which <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/florida-just-became-the-nations-biggest-school-choice-laboratory/">recently passed legislation</a> that allows any student to apply for several thousand dollars in state funds that can be used toward private school tuition. </p>
<p>Researchers have found that earlier phases of private school vouchers in Florida led to <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26758/w26758.pdf">improvements</a> in public school student test scores, absenteeism and suspensions, which supports the idea that competition from private schools can benefit students who opt not to use vouchers and stay in public schools.</p>
<p>Private school vouchers are, however, a contentious topic. Opponents of vouchers and school choice policies more generally argue that they put traditional public schools at a <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/state-policymakers-should-reject-k-12-school-voucher-plans">financial disadvantage</a>. Critics have also noted that some of the early voucher advocates viewed them as a way to <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2017/7/23/21107262/critics-of-vouchers-say-they-re-marred-by-racism-and-exacerbate-segregation-are-they-right">avoid racial integration</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, school choice can theoretically lead to sorting, where higher-achieving or higher-income students group together, and this can be detrimental to lower-achieving students who are left behind. There is <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1257/jel.20150679">evidence of sorting like this</a>, particularly in large-scale voucher systems outside the U.S. </p>
<p>Florida’s newly expanded model of school choice is <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/florida-just-became-the-nations-biggest-school-choice-laboratory/">one of the most comprehensive</a> in the country. <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/23689496/school-choice-education-savings-accounts-american-federation-children">Several other states</a> have also recently revised their school choice policies, generally extending eligibility for vouchers and education savings accounts beyond needy populations. In time, we can expect the evidence on school choice to grow substantially and perhaps occupy more attention in future debates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With Donald Trump absent again, Republican presidential hopefuls took potshots at each other but agreed that Bidenomics isn’t cutting it.Ryan Herzog, Associate Professor of Economics, Gonzaga UniversityCeleste K. Carruthers, Professor of Economics, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2028142023-04-14T12:16:31Z2023-04-14T12:16:31ZParents tend to choose their children’s schools based on their own educational experience<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519664/original/file-20230405-23-xkm35y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C17%2C5742%2C3811&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Patterns of segregation may repeat if parents continually choose schools like the ones they attended.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/family-enjoys-walk-home-from-neighborhood-school-royalty-free-image/1250064135?phrase=parents%2Btake%2Bkids%2Bto%2Bschool">SDI Productions via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Faced with a <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/blogs/nces/post/new-report-on-school-choice-in-the-united-states">growing number of options</a> for where to enroll their children in school, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23294965231159306">parents quickly narrow their choices</a> based on their own educational experience as students.</p>
<p>That’s what we found for a study published in March 2023 in Social Currents.</p>
<p>Historically, parents have turned to their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12483">social networks</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085914550414">materials produced by school districts</a> to help them choose a school for their children.</p>
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<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>However, when we analyzed interviews with a diverse sample of 60 parents from the Dallas metropolitan area, we found that about one-third of them used their own experiences in school to narrow their options before they gathered other information about schools. </p>
<p>If parents had a positive educational experience as children, they frequently narrowed their options to the same type of school that they attended, whether that be a private, magnet or traditional public school. Their hope was to replicate this positive experience for their kids. For example, Janice, a Black mother of two, explained, “They’re in private school mainly because I went to private school.” </p>
<p>Although parents of all backgrounds and income levels used this strategy, it was most common among white parents, who typically enrolled their children in private or suburban public schools, which they attended themselves. We refer to this as “experience-motivated replication.”</p>
<p>Virginia, a white mother of two, explained that her husband, John, “just assumed our kids are going to public schools” because the suburban schools he attended were such “wonderful public schools.” To replicate John’s experience the couple was in the process of leaving the city to buy a home in the suburbs.</p>
<p>Similarly, Rachel, a white mother of three, quickly narrowed her school options to consider only private Catholic schools because of her own positive experience. Rachel’s husband told us: “The kids go to the same private Catholic school that she went to.” </p>
<p>In contrast, we find that when parents had negative educational experiences, they typically sought to avoid enrolling their children in the type of school they attended, eliminating those schools from consideration. This strategy, which we call “experience-motivated avoidance,” was common among Black parents in our sample who felt underserved in city public schools as children.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519965/original/file-20230407-20-pmq94h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black mother looks at a book along with her two children, a girl and a boy, while seated on a couch in their home." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519965/original/file-20230407-20-pmq94h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519965/original/file-20230407-20-pmq94h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519965/original/file-20230407-20-pmq94h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519965/original/file-20230407-20-pmq94h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519965/original/file-20230407-20-pmq94h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519965/original/file-20230407-20-pmq94h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519965/original/file-20230407-20-pmq94h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Black parents often seek to save their children from negative school experiences like the ones they may have had as children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-american-mother-and-children-looking-at-royalty-free-image/77137484?phrase=black%20mother%20two%20kids%20school&adppopup=true">Jose Luis Pelaez Inc via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>For instance, Toni, a Black mother of three, shared: “I went to a public school and I don’t think that the teachers really care about the kids’ education. That’s me personally. I didn’t get that one on one.” Based on this negative experience, she did not consider their zoned Dallas public school. Instead, Toni focused on charter school options for her children. She ultimately enrolled them in a charter school near her home. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Where families decide to enroll their children in school not only influences the educational resources available to their child, but also shapes broader patterns of racial and socioeconomic segregation in America’s schools.</p>
<p>The school selection process plays a key role in how educational inequalities span generations, especially when white parents rely on their own experiences to inform the choices they make for their children.</p>
<p>For example, when white families move out of the city to enroll their children in suburban public schools, or consider only private schools like those they attended, these choices replicate historic patterns of white flight. It also helps explain why white families tend to be overrepresented in <a href="https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/private-schools-in-american-education-a-small-sector-still-lagging-in-diversity">private schools</a> and suburban public schools.</p>
<p>Conversely, when we examine how parents’ negative experiences as students influence which schools they consider for their children, it may help us to better understand why, for instance, <a href="https://data.publiccharters.org/digest/charter-school-data-digest/who-attends-charter-schools/">Black and Latino families</a> increasingly choose charter schools. </p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>While this study shines light on one key aspect of how parents choose schools for their children, we believe it is important to understand all of the ways parents choose schools. Examining the choice process for diverse populations of families in districts where school choice is available can reveal the full set of strategies parents rely on to select schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Parents who had positive experiences in school often select schools for their children that are similar to the ones they attended – but if they had a bad experience they avoid those kinds of schools.Anna Rhodes, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Rice UniversityJulia Szabo, PhD Candidate in Sociology, Rice UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2008882023-04-11T20:32:11Z2023-04-11T20:32:11ZAdding charter schools to Ontario would exacerbate student inequities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519396/original/file-20230404-14-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C53%2C3972%2C2324&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School closures related to labour disputes and the pandemic prompted some commentators to call for charter schools. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents and other advocates who are dissatisfied with the current state of public schooling often call for the expansion of school choice. </p>
<p>In Ontario, this erupted following school closures <a href="https://financialpost.com/opinion/cupe-strike-school-choice-ontario-education">as a result of labour disputes</a> and COVID-19. Some commentators <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/heres-what-school-choice-in-ontario-could-look-like-for-parents">and think tanks have suggested</a> charter schooling is a viable option for students in Ontario. <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charter-schools#:%7E:text=Alberta%20is%20the%20only%20province,and%20permit%20more%20parental%20choice.">Alberta is the only province in Canada to have charter schools</a> and has had them for nearly 30 years. </p>
<p><a href="https://openlibrary-repo.ecampusontario.ca/jspui/handle/123456789/673">Charter schools</a> are a specific type of alternative education that is publicly funded in a manner specified in the school’s charter. Their governance is handled by charter board members, as opposed to the local school board — a significant distinction from other alternative schools. </p>
<p>Typically, the charter board consists of parents, instructors and community members, whereas other public schools are governed by officials elected by public vote. Charter schools are in charge of all their own hires and admissions, and report directly to the government.</p>
<p>School choice already abounds in Ontario. No compelling evidence exists that adding choice in the form of charter schools will bolster student achievement. Adding charter schools would likely contribute both to segregating students by race and socio-economic status, and <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/calgary-charter-schools-await-ucp-funding#">creating elite schools that cherry pick their students</a>.</p>
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<img alt="A sign for a charter academy school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519363/original/file-20230404-897-t0znbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Does Ontario really need more school choice in the form of charter schools? A sign for a charter academy school in Winterville, N.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Justin Lundy/WITN-TV via AP)</span></span>
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<h2>Existing choice in Ontario</h2>
<p>School choice can take many forms, and in Canada it has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423921000901">typically been developed within the public system</a>.<br>
In Ontario, school choice within the public system includes the <a href="https://www.ocsta.on.ca/catholic-schools-in-ontario/">publicly funded Catholic system</a>, <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/french-second-language-programs">French immersion</a>, the <a href="https://www.ontarioschools.org/TalentedandGifted.aspx">gifted program</a> and an array of <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/alternativeschools/#%22%22">alternative schools</a>. There are also <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/private-schools-0">over 1,300 private</a> school options available to parents in the province. </p>
<p>However, unlike <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/program-management/independent-schools/funding">British Columbia</a> and <a href="https://ecolespriveesquebec.ca/en/private-school/faq/">Québec</a>, there exists no subsidy system for private schooling in Ontario. In British Columbia, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-private-schools-491-million-public-funding-1.6589571">the provincial government subsidizes the cost of private schooling</a>, covering between 35 per cent and 50 per cent of tuition. </p>
<p>Similarly in Québec, <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-brace-for-more-inequality-in-education-under-bill-96">the provincial government generously funds privates schools</a>. In Ontario and other provinces, parents who choose private schools foot the entire bill. </p>
<h2>For the wealthy?</h2>
<p>Introducing private competition with the public system <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904819874756">reveals only very small improvements in school achievement</a> when data across the United States are analyzed. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19367244211003471">No comparable data</a> are available to analyze in Canada.</p>
<p>Critics argue school choice does <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/heres-what-school-choice-in-ontario-could-look-like-for-parents">not only have to be for the wealthy</a> and <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/agar-supporting-education-vouchers-is-putting-children-first">voucher systems</a> or <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-school-choice">charter schools</a> could provide an avenue for low- to middle-income families to choose the type of education their children receive.</p>
<p>However, instead of being the great equalizer, there is considerable evidence that school choice actually exacerbates existing inequities, especially race and <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-choice-policies-are-associated-with-increased-separation-of-students-by-social-class-149902">socio-economic</a> inequities. </p>
<p>Boards like the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) have alternative schools or specialty programs that offer a great deal of choice. Many of these speciality programs <a href="https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v7i2.421">have also been found to exacerbate existing inequities</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen walking in front of a school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519393/original/file-20230404-16-2zt88c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Data from Ontario show that significant inequality exists when there are coveted spots within the public system for schools of choice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Demographic homogeneity</h2>
<p>For example, a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.2716">study on</a> specialty arts programs in the TDSB found that students were disproportionately white, wealthier and more likely to have parents who had gone to university. </p>
<p>The study found that the demographic homogeneity of the school environments contributes to continued structural inequities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/french-immersion-and-other-regional-learning-programs-smart-choice-for-your-kids-or-do-they-fuel-inequity-195184">French immersion and other regional learning programs: Smart choice for your kids, or do they fuel inequity?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Data from Ontario show that significant inequality exists when there are coveted spots within the existing public system for schools of choice. The TDSB <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-tdsb-specialized-school-programs/">created a lottery system</a> to address this — but recent reports said the board discovered there was an <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/racialized-disabled-and-lgbtq-students-excluded-from-tdsb-elementary-lottery-1.6344461">oversight when administering the lottery and prioritized students were excluded from it</a>.</p>
<p>How would adding charter schools level the playing field? </p>
<h2>Data from the U.S.</h2>
<p>In comparably diverse American cities with public, private and charter schools, more evidence to the contrary exists. Examining <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED613612.pdf">data from New York City</a> on private and public school enrolment shows high levels of school racial segregation. </p>
<p>In NYC, approximately 14 per cent of students attend private schools, while 77 per cent attend public district schools and nine per cent attend charter schools.</p>
<p>Although charter schools make up nine per cent of the student population in NYC, 54 per cent of charter school students are Black, 39 per cent are Hispanic and five per cent are white. In contrast, white students make up 69 per cent of private school population, while Black students make up 11 per cent.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-cyber-charter-schools-are-and-why-their-growth-should-worry-us-68471">What cyber charter schools are and why their growth should worry us</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The research on whether charter schools improve student achievement is extremely mixed. An <a href="https://public-schools.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/PrivatizingPublicChoice-ThePastPresentandFutureofCharteSchoolsinAlberta.pdf">overview</a> of the American data suggests that students in public and charter schools perform at similar levels. </p>
<p>The same report also showed that there is considerable evidence that charter schools exacerbate existing racial, ethnic and socio-economic segregation in the U.S. There is not much evidence that the expansion of the charter system in the U.S. spurred innovation and competition in the public sector and improved education across the board.</p>
<h2>High test scores needed?</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A hand seen writing a test on a classroom desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519884/original/file-20230406-694-m8u43n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some charter schools have been found to prevent students with disabilities from enrolling as a strategy to keep test scores high.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since charter schools are at a risk of closure when they do not perform adequately, there is a lot of pressure to achieve and maintain high test scores. </p>
<p>Charter schools have <a href="https://raceandschools.barnard.edu/charterschools/disabilities/">been found</a> to prevent students with disabilities from enrolling as a strategy to keep test scores high. </p>
<p>The lack of accountability and transparency from charter schools in the U.S. has led some organizations focussed around racial justice to support a <a href="https://naacp.org/resources/calling-moratorium-charter-school-expansion-and-strengthening-oversight-governance-and">moratorium</a> on charter schools.</p>
<h2>Achievement in Alberta</h2>
<p>Alberta, like Ontario, also enjoys considerable <a href="https://www.albertaschoolcouncils.ca/education-in-alberta/education-options">choice within the public system</a>, including through charter schools. CBC reported in March that around <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-s-education-budget-features-new-schools-and-replacements-first-charter-school-hub-1.6765068">20,000 students are on wait lists for charter schools</a> in the province, following the province’s removal of <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7000587/alberta-government-ucp-charter-schools-home-schooling-education-may/">a cap on them in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>There are, however, no public reports that provide any evidence that students in Alberta’s charter schools are doing better than their peers elsewhere in the public system. </p>
<p>Adding additional mechanisms to exacerbate inequality in the name of “choice” in Ontario will do nothing for overall student achievement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Robson receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rochelle Wijesingha is affiliated with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Association. She is the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator.</span></em></p>School choice already abounds in Ontario. Adding charter schooling in the name of ‘choice’ won’t help student achievement.Karen Robson, Ontario Research Chair in Academic Achievement and At-Risk Youth, McMaster UniversityRochelle Wijesingha, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962612023-03-08T13:41:29Z2023-03-08T13:41:29ZSchool choice proposals rarely go before voters – and typically fail when they do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511488/original/file-20230221-28-x0c9n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C38%2C8523%2C5652&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds speaks to supporters before signing a bill that creates education savings accounts in January 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PrivateSchoolsStateFunding/ab75378b2d084cfeb077faa3cae7b3d7/photo">AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Arizona lawmakers decided in late 2022 that the <a href="https://news.azpm.org/p/news-splash/2022/12/10/214078-not-quite-universal-but-families-flocked-to-universal-voucher-program/">state will pay tuition, related education expenses or both</a> for children at any school parents select, including private and religious schools.</p>
<p>It’s the latest step in an effort to provide public funds for private schools that in Arizona began in 2011. And that step was taken along what I have discovered to be a familiar route.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KLVtdQYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education policy researcher</a>, I wanted to understand why these voucher programs are becoming more common despite evidence they <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-vouchers-expand-despite-evidence-of-negative-effects-117370">do not improve, and may even impede, students’ educational achievement</a>. Rather than put the question of whether to use public money for private schools before voters, advocates for choice almost always want state legislatures to make the decision instead. That may be because a careful look at the efforts suggests that if it were up to voters, school choice proposals would rarely succeed.</p>
<p>Lawmakers in <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/iowa-lawmakers-approves-public-money-for-private-school-students">Iowa</a>, <a href="https://alec.org/article/victory-for-west-virginia-families-historic-education-opportunity-program-declared-constitutional/">West Virginia</a> and <a href="https://www.education.nh.gov/news/second-year-education-freedom-accounts-prospering">New Hampshire</a> all recently passed plans similar to Arizona’s. In 2022, <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/betsy-devos-let-mi-kids-learn-scholarship-plan-submit-signatures">Michigan advocates – led by former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos</a> – chose to <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/10/let-mi-kids-learn-signatures-devos/10285200002/">petition legislators</a> to approve <a href="https://www.letmikidslearn.com/">such a plan</a> for over a million children, rather than seeking a public referendum on the issue.</p>
<p>Private and religious schools have traditionally been prohibited from receiving taxpayer dollars. But since <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice-in-america-dashboard-scia/">private school-choice programs</a> began in the 1990s, 32 states and the District of Columbia have adopted 76 school voucher or voucherlike programs that allow families to send their children to private schools at public expense, according to the pro-voucher group <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice-in-america-dashboard-scia/">EdChoice</a>. Additionally, <a href="https://charterschoolcenter.ed.gov/charter-schools-usa">45 states and Washington, D.C.</a>, have charter school programs, which are publicly funded but privately managed.</p>
<p>But of those 121 programs, only two have been approved by voters. The issue has been brought to referendum in various states 16 times since Michigan first voted on it in 1978 and has been rejected 14 times. In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/education/future-of-georgias-charter-schools-on-ballot.html">2012</a>, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Georgia_Charter_Schools,_Amendment_1_(2012)">Georgia voters</a> enabled state lawmakers to authorize charter schools, and Washington state voters <a href="https://dev.ballotpedia.org/Washington_Charter_School_Initiative,_Initiative_1240_(2012)">barely passed</a> a charter school initiative they <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/big-money-pushing-for-wash-charter-schools-gates-out-in-front/">had rejected twice before</a>.</p>
<h2>Parents’ interest growing</h2>
<p>Parents are taking advantage of those opportunities. There are <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/education-statistics-facts-about-american-schools/2019/01">50 million public school students</a> in grades K-12 in the U.S., of whom 3.4 million attend charter schools. About 5.5 million students are in private schools. The numbers are proportionately small, but growing.</p>
<p>For instance, from 2000 to 2016, the U.S. Department of Education reported the number of students in charter schools <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019106.pdf">increased more than fivefold</a>.</p>
<h2>Pressure on public schools</h2>
<p>Advocates for public schools argue that when public money is spent on private schools, it “<a href="https://networkforpubliceducation.org/privatization-toolkit/">[siphons] off students, resources and funding</a>” from public schools.</p>
<p>But supporters say voucher programs <a href="https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/here-are-10-reasons-school-choice-winning">usefully pressure public schools to improve</a> under threat of losing enrollment and funding.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.mackinac.org/6540">still others</a> emphasize distinctions between <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/education/interactive-guide-to-school-choice.aspx">different types</a> of choice programs, <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/for-profit-charter-schools-evaluation-spending-outcomes">regulations and funding schemes</a>. For instance, some people support publicly funded charter schools as options within the public school system, but do not support vouchers allowing families to take tax dollars to help pay for private schools.</p>
<h2>Referendums failed</h2>
<p>The process by which these programs have become law started <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Michigan_Education_Funds_Amendment,_Proposal_H_(1978)">in 1978 in Michigan</a> with petitions and referendums, but they largely failed. That 1978 proposal sought a statewide referendum to create vouchers and got on the ballot but was <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Michigan_Education_Funds_Amendment,_Proposal_H_(1978)">rejected by a 3-to-1 margin</a>. A very similar Michigan petition drive in 2000 failed by a <a href="https://www.mackinac.org/3208">similarly large margin</a>. Referendum efforts in 2000 in California, and one in Utah in 2007, <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2008/04/01/an-idea-whose-time-has-gone/">also failed</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, more recent efforts aim to go through the legislature – even if laws that have passed have also been overturned by referendums later.</p>
<p>For instance, a 2017 Arizona law would have allowed students to <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2017/04/07/arizona-gov-doug-ducey-signs-school-voucher-expansion/100159192/">use taxpayer dollars at private schools</a>. But before it could take effect, a petition drive gave voters a chance to <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/06/arizona-prop-305-results-voters-decide-school-vouchers/1809291002/">overturn the law</a>, which they did in 2018, by a <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/state/arizona-proposition-305-fails-reducing-school-vouchers-available-to-families">two-thirds majority</a>. </p>
<p>In 2022, state lawmakers passed an almost identical bill, and as he had in 2017, Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2022/07/07/ariz-governor-signs-universal-school-voucher-law-advocates-vow-fight/7827019001/">signed it into law on July 7, 2022</a>. A second petition drive to reverse it <a href="https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2022/09/30/petition-to-block-voucher-law-falls-short-application-deadline-extended/">failed to round up nearly 120,000 signatures</a> before the legal deadline, and the law took effect.</p>
<h2>A new effort in Michigan</h2>
<p>But in 2022, a new petition drive arose, backed by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a Michigan native and former state Republican Party chair. Instead of asking voters to approve the idea, however, it used a <a href="https://crcmich.org/michigans-citizen-initiative-petition-process-in-2022-a-lot-of-ballot-proposals">provision of Michigan law</a> that meant the petition <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/betsy-devos-let-mi-kids-learn-scholarship-plan-submit-signatures">positioned legislators to pass the law themselves</a>. </p>
<p>That process sought to preempt another referendum on school choice, as well as a <a href="https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2021/11/1/22758182/michigan-voucher-proponents-plan-petition-to-circumvent-veto">likely veto</a> from Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.</p>
<p>When voters flipped control of the Michigan Legislature from Republican to Democratic in November 2022, <a href="https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2023/1/9/23547548/michigan-devos-school-choice-private-schools-petitions-withdrawn-let-mi-kids-learn">DeVos’ group withdrew its petition</a>, effectively killing the proposal.</p>
<p>The next time a school choice program is put before lawmakers, it’s worth asking whether the program would pass if it were put before voters. History shows the answer is usually a resounding “no.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Lubienski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most school-choice programs in the US have been approved by lawmakers. But when asked for their views, voters have overwhelmingly rejected them.Christopher Lubienski, Professor of Education Policy, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1999792023-02-21T19:04:33Z2023-02-21T19:04:33ZThe My School website has just been updated. What makes a ‘good’ school?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511269/original/file-20230221-22-nlfqmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5069%2C3374&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents often worry about which school will be the best one for their children. Is the local public school the best option or would another public, faith-based or independent school be a better fit? </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.myschool.edu.au">My School website</a> has just been updated for 2023. This is the site launched in 2010 by then education minister, Julia Gillard, which allows you to search information about individual schools. </p>
<p>If you are looking up My School data about your child’s school, what should you keep in mind? How do you know whether your school is a “good” one?</p>
<h2>What is My School?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.myschool.edu.au/about-my-school">My School</a> website is updated each year with information about every school in Australia. According to the site, this is to help parents and the community understand “the performance of schools over time”.</p>
<p>My School includes information about enrolment numbers, attendance, the socioeconomic background of students and NAPLAN results since 2014.</p>
<p>The site also provides information about schools’ finances, funding sources and the “post-school destinations” of students, which includes information about further education and training or employment six months after completing Year 12.</p>
<h2>My School does not measure school quality</h2>
<p>My School <a href="https://myschool.edu.au/about-my-school">says</a> it “does not measure overall school quality”, but instead “complements other reporting measures aimed at ensuring schools and school systems are accountable to parents”.</p>
<p>In 2020, My School <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/new-simplified-my-school-website-dumps-school-comparisons-20200317-p54b2j.html">revamped its approach</a> and got rid of direct comparisons between schools in favour of reporting on “student progress”. This charts average NAPLAN performance compared with students from similar socioeconomic backgrounds and comparable NAPLAN scores two years earlier.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Children play in a school hall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511270/original/file-20230221-28-cz2c4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511270/original/file-20230221-28-cz2c4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511270/original/file-20230221-28-cz2c4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511270/original/file-20230221-28-cz2c4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511270/original/file-20230221-28-cz2c4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511270/original/file-20230221-28-cz2c4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511270/original/file-20230221-28-cz2c4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">My School is aimed at making schools ‘accountable’ to parents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, there is no doubt “high performing” schools are singled out for media coverage via the My School database and through their NAPLAN results. While My School actively discourages the use of its data to generate league tables, media reporting often does <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/queensland-education/schools-hub/500-queensland-private-school-fees-vs-naplan-results-revealed/news-story/d818af6764b88aee88139400a522cc83">precisely this</a>. On top of this, <a href="https://lens.monash.edu/@education/2021/05/10/1383196/learning-from-disruption-why-we-should-rethink-the-place-of-naplan-in-our-schools">substantial concerns</a> remain about the value of NAPLAN altogether. This includes detrimental impacts on staff morale and student wellbeing. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, NAPLAN results do not necessarily tell you anything about the quality of a school and its teachers. My School does not give direct information about school culture, community connections and values, which are all important considerations when thinking about what makes for a “good” school. </p>
<p>In short, parents should not read too much into NAPLAN results and My School information.</p>
<h2>How can you get a sense of quality?</h2>
<p>A good school for your child is the one where they feel like they belong, are seen and heard by their teachers and peers, and where they are challenged by a curriculum that connects them to new ideas and ways of thinking about the world. </p>
<p>There is simply no substitute for visiting a school, speaking to teachers and school leaders, and getting information about their programs and resources. Attending school open days and parent information evenings can also provide a useful source of information about the community and culture of the school.</p>
<p>Parents should make sure they ask their children what they want from a school or where they might like to go. For example, are they very interested in a particular sports or arts program at one school? Is going to school in their local area important? Where are their friends going?</p>
<p>You can also ask other parents why they send their children to a particular school.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-the-naplan-test-changes-mean-for-schools-and-students-199764">What do the NAPLAN test changes mean for schools and students?</a>
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<h2>Which school is best?</h2>
<p>School choice is taking place in a highly pressurised and ongoing debate in Australia. There are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-15/abs-data-shows-public-private-school-enrolments-divide/101976204">news stories</a> about an “exodus” of students from the public system to private schools. It is important to look at the actual figures here. </p>
<p>Between 2018 and 2022, an additional 71,388 students enrolled in Australian independent schools. Over the same period, an additional 47,657 students enrolled in government schools – so this is hardly an exodus.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A student works at a computer and smiles at another student." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511283/original/file-20230221-26-nopgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511283/original/file-20230221-26-nopgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511283/original/file-20230221-26-nopgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511283/original/file-20230221-26-nopgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511283/original/file-20230221-26-nopgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511283/original/file-20230221-26-nopgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511283/original/file-20230221-26-nopgpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">When thinking about schools, make sure you ask your child what they want.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>There is a demand for a <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-a-new-online-only-private-school-what-are-the-options-if-the-mainstream-system-doesnt-suit-your-child-189138">diverse range of schools</a> that provide different programs, philosophies and structures for young people. But while families obviously need to make their own choices, research shows students’ performance at school is largely based on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220620.2019.1689234">their socioeconomic background</a> rather than whether they went to a private or public school. </p>
<p>It’s not always the case of a super-rich private school versus an impoverished public school, either. For example, low-fee independent schools can struggle to meet basic resourcing for students, while government schools in affluent areas can generate <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03050068.2021.1942359">substantial funds</a> through voluntary parent contributions, fundraising and ventures such as outside school care and school canteens.</p>
<p>It can also be easy to get caught up by marketing campaigns used during “open day” season, when schools (including <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02188791.2021.1953440">public ones</a>) compete for new enrolments and tout their academic achievements, programs and co-curricular offerings.</p>
<p>If families do have a choice about schooling – noting that many do not – remember the value of a school is not just about how they rate on a website. A good school is one where your child is safe, feels like they belong and can participate in a rich learning environment.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-private-high-school-enrolments-have-jumped-70-since-2012-195714">Australian private high school enrolments have jumped 70% since 2012</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Riddle receives funding from the Australian Research Council (LP210100098 - Constructing a rich curriculum for all: ‘Insights into practice’).</span></em></p>My School is updated each year with information about every school in Australia to help parents understand “the performance of schools over time”.Stewart Riddle, Associate Professor, School of Education, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1951842023-02-13T20:09:47Z2023-02-13T20:09:47ZFrench immersion and other regional learning programs: Smart choice for your kids, or do they fuel inequity?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509312/original/file-20230209-22-iccs2s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C32%2C1727%2C970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School choice policies have positioned schools as existing in a free market of schools, but parents and guardians have different amounts of 'educational currency' or privilege when choosing programs. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the past half-century, <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice/faqs/how-does-school-choice-work-in-other-countries/">school choice initiatives</a> have been intensifying across the globe. Choice policies <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781442695412/understanding-school-choice-in-canada/">emphasize school competition and increasing families’ opportunities to select among academic programs</a>. </p>
<p>Some research suggests <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.37.4.459">parents who can and do choose alternate programs for their children are pleased to have more options</a>,
yet researchers also caution that proliferating programs of choice <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/pme.2010.18.1.65">exacerbate academic inequity</a> and are associated with <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-choice-policies-are-associated-with-increased-separation-of-students-by-social-class-149902">separating students by social class</a>.</p>
<p>My doctoral research has explored how parents’ circumstances shape their interpretation, access and navigation of what school choice policies have framed as the educational market in Ontario — and how teachers who are also parents (teacher-parents) understand regional programs of choice.</p>
<p>As insiders in education systems, teacher-parents are a uniquely informed subgroup among parents or guardians choosing education for children. Teachers in my study emphasized the advantages of regional programs, in particular French immersion. </p>
<h2>French immersion</h2>
<p>French immersion schooling has emerged in a larger landscape of policies and provisions bolstering forms of education such as <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262535908/school-choice/">private schools, home schooling and charter schools</a>. </p>
<p>In Canada, public education is provincially mandated. In Ontario, this includes 31 English school boards, 29 English Catholic boards, four French boards and eight French Catholic boards. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen standing outside in a line waiting to go into school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509304/original/file-20230209-27-he5el6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">School choice policies emphasize increasing families’ opportunities to select between academic programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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<p>As educational researcher Jane Gaskell has noted, while in the United States, “choice has been justified by the idea of using market competition to improve schools.” In Canada, other arguments for choice have had more traction, namely “<a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-expansion-of-school-choice-in-toronto">recognizing that diverse programs are a response to diverse publics</a>.” Boards “add new programs to keep parents engaged in and supportive of the public system.” </p>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/cpp.37.4.459">provinces and boards have continued to offer additional options.</a> These include French immersion and extended French, <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/High-School/Going-to-High-School/Secondary-Central-Student-Interest-Programs/International-Baccalaureate">International Baccalaureate</a> programs, arts and sports programs and a wide array of alternative options. </p>
<h2>Academic inequity</h2>
<p>However, some research shows <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/pme.2010.18.1.65">school choice initiatives exacerbate academic inequity by creating elite opportunities</a>. Canadian studies identify how <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/pme.2010.18.1.65">specialized schools and programs are comparable to private schools in a public system</a>.</p>
<p>The research of education sociology researchers Ee-Seul Yoon and Kalervo N. Gulson, focused on Vancouver, found French immersion programs appeal to anglophone middle-class parents, and this ends up excluding <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25758493">immigrant families whose mother tongue is not English</a>. Also at an advantage are parents with more informed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093042000227465">social networks</a>.</p>
<h2>French immersion study</h2>
<p>As a teacher-parent myself, I analyzed the experiences of 23 teacher-parents in Ontario. I contacted several of my colleagues from different public systems in Ontario through email, telephone or in person. I then asked interested parties to forward invitations to potential participants. Each took part in one individual and one group interview. </p>
<p>“Educational currency” is a privilege that is valuable in the school market. This currency is composed of, but not limited to, one’s access to relevant information, influential relationships, social status and academic experience — providing they ameliorate or enhance one’s access to options and/or ability to choose effectively. </p>
<p>Understanding educational currency helps to underscore the inequity in the school choice process. Participants acquire various levels and elements of educational currency through system memberships (belonging to a board, school, program), professional experiences (working within schools and classrooms), social networks and personal experiences as parents and general members of the community. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A classroom with tables." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C58%2C3000%2C1639&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509308/original/file-20230209-16-3ycvxz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Teacher-parents in a study described classrooms of choice as attracting better students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Teacher parents</h2>
<p>Teacher-parents described classrooms of choice as enhanced learning environments that follow an enriched curriculum and attract better students. They identify these students as generally having fewer behavioural and academic needs. </p>
<p>While teacher-parents acknowledge that students are being separated into cohorts labelled strong and weak, many continue to use their educational currency to secure spots for their own children. </p>
<p>Research from Alberta finds that school selection is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/15582150802098795">“essentially a middle-class phenomenon</a>.” Even within the public system, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2016.1209637">there are uneven elements of the enrolment process based on lifestyle</a>.</p>
<p>My research supports these notions, in addition to underscoring the perceived superiority of select programs. </p>
<h2>Social effects</h2>
<p>Several participants went so far as to say the benefits gained by some children through French immersion resulted in the injury of the core classroom — that splitting children who were previously classmates into different programs introduces social rifts. </p>
<p>Arguments for school choice reforms include an attempt to satisfy parental requests, <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-expansion-of-school-choice-in-toronto">enhance the quality of schooling, keep children in public systems, serve diverse communities and increase equity in the public system</a>. </p>
<p>Yet my findings suggest that, as perceived by teacher-parents — educational system insiders — the best options for quality educational programs are also those that are divisive, elite and threaten to exacerbate inequity within the school system. Findings also suggest it is the ability to use privilege to navigate the market that crystalizes the inequity of school choice. </p>
<p>As a public-school teacher and researcher, I am dedicated to the development of fair and inclusive school policy. However, my priority is the well-being and opportunities of my own children. I, too, will continue to use my educational currency to situate my kids in the best available learning environment. </p>
<h2>Policy solutions</h2>
<p>The preliminary results of my study suggest school choice presents a problem our society must address through policy. The complex but ideal solution is distributing educational currency more evenly across those making the choice, and reducing barriers to that choice.</p>
<p>This may look like <a href="https://www.peelschools.org/french">lottery pools, schools offering placements through random selection</a> or <a href="https://www.peelschools.org/news/Grade-8-information-nights,-Dress-Purple-Day-and-other-important-information2022-06-29-19:10:49.091418+00">information nights</a> to familiarize parents with options and ensure there are no costly transportation fees. </p>
<p>To really know how to effectively distribute educational currency in local contexts, community engagement with a diversity of parents, guardians and community networks is critical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195184/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Chami Lindsay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a study, teachers who are parents acknowledged programs of choice separate students into cohorts labelled strong and weak, yet many continue to secure spots for their own children.Julie Chami Lindsay, PhD student, Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1931872023-01-16T18:16:56Z2023-01-16T18:16:56ZHow one small school in B.C. became a public elementary Montessori school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504265/original/file-20230112-24-mtxzuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=312%2C386%2C3820%2C3268&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Montessori education encourages split grades, and as a school with low enrolment numbers, it already had teachers teaching multiple grades in a single class.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-one-small-school-in-b-c--became-a-public-elementary-montessori-school" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Why do some public schools have specialized curricula or programs — what have come to be called <a href="https://www.sookenewsmirror.com/news/alternative-learning-provides-sooke-students-with-a-choice/">schools or programs of choice</a>? </p>
<p>And what kinds of educational leadership questions come into play when schools adapt or change? </p>
<p>My story of leading a process to become a <a href="https://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/local-news/a-new-way-to-learn-3474165">public Montessori school</a>, in <a href="https://www.gochetwynd.com/">Chetwynd, B.C.</a>, offers one look at this. </p>
<h2>Schools of choice</h2>
<p>In B.C., a school of choice is designated <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/legislation-policy/public-schools/alternate-education-program">as an Alternate Education Program</a>. As B.C.’s education policy notes, these schools or programs provide support through specialized program delivery and instruction that is differentiated from mainstream schooling.</p>
<p>After I heard rumours that officials might close the small elementary school where I was principal, and learned from the superintendent there were no <em>immediate</em> plans to close this school, I knew I needed to act. </p>
<p>The province’s School Act notes that a “board is responsible for the <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/legislation-policy/legislation/schoollaw/revisedstatutescontents.pdf">improvement of student achievement in the school district</a>.” As principal I was <a href="https://bccpac.bc.ca/upload/2016/05/lm-tab2_statutes_contents_0.pdf">responsible for the school</a> and had a duty of care to the students already in our catchment area.</p>
<p>Officials consider school closure when they are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/education-funding-british-columbia-ccpa-2016-1.3735255">not financially viable, and with a per-student funding formula</a>, low enrolment is problematic. </p>
<p>I knew that Montessori methodology could offer a viable alternative to regular schooling. Named after <a href="https://amshq.org/About-Montessori/History-of-Montessori/Who-Was-Maria-Montessori">Maria Montessori, an Italian physician and educator</a>, the central tenet of Montessori methodology is that children are naturally curious and learn through their own experience at their own pace. I was aware of popular private Montessori programs in other parts of the province, and of public Montessori schools that drew parent interest. </p>
<p>I also believed adopting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcgN0lEh5IA">a Montessori approach</a> would enable the school to enrol and attract students from out of our catchment area.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3ZFajh6uVWM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘The Montessori Method: Education for Life,’ video from Inside Montessori.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Engaging teachers, parents</h2>
<p>Inspired by <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203880616">research on engaging all stakeholders through conversation that is mindful of authentic local conditions</a>, I began by talking with my staff and then with our parent advisory committee. </p>
<p>Research holds that building <a href="https://www.pearson.com/en-ca/subject-catalog/p/leadership-in-organizations/P200000006445?view=educator">trusting relations</a> is a <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-ca/Student+Centered+Leadership-p-9781118090299">key leadership skill</a>. </p>
<p>When rumours of closure were circulating, my staff showed signs of worry.
Some parents also began to suggest withdrawing their kids. Two members of my parent advisory committee told me they would be enrolling their children elsewhere.</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/legislation-policy/independent-schools/homeschooling">considered home schooling</a>. “If they’re going to close us, we may as well put our kids in the Christian school now” was another sentiment. This was a non-denominational private school nearby.</p>
<p>I looked first to my teachers to consider what actions to take. </p>
<h2>Montessori model</h2>
<p>As a leader, I had supported teachers in developing <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315854120">differentiated approaches</a> in their classrooms to meet student needs. </p>
<p>As a school with low enrolment numbers we already had teachers teaching multiple grades in a single class, and Montessori <a href="http://www.northeastnews.ca/don-titus-elementary-makes-move-to-montessori/">encourages split grades</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/maria-montessori-challenged-and-changed-how-kids-are-taught-and-remains-influential-today-144895">Maria Montessori challenged and changed how kids are taught, and remains influential today</a>
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<p>Montessori emphasizes caring, and teaching the child in a holistic, systematic way in a strategically prepared <a href="https://montessori-ami.org/about-montessori/montessori-environments">environment that supports independence</a>. If we were to be successful, the only real measure of success would come from our students. The Montessori method <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1288350">grew from careful observations of how children learn</a> and it puts the child at the centre of their own learning. </p>
<h2>Creating a shared vision</h2>
<p>I worked on creating a shared vision with my teachers — over time.</p>
<p>For instance, having first planted the seed by chatting with my teachers about Montessori, I let the matter rest. When a member of the district leadership team called later to ask what was going on with Montessori at my school, I knew that my teachers had been talking with each other, and their colleagues. The seed was growing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Plants seen in a classroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504262/original/file-20230112-47543-vijmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504262/original/file-20230112-47543-vijmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504262/original/file-20230112-47543-vijmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504262/original/file-20230112-47543-vijmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504262/original/file-20230112-47543-vijmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504262/original/file-20230112-47543-vijmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504262/original/file-20230112-47543-vijmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Montessori classrooms include hands-on learning, and care for the environment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>I showed teachers how we already aligned with Montessori. I told them that if they would take the training, I would secure the funding. The teachers agreed.</p>
<p>We included support staff in our conversation and shared with them our excitement about this venture. With those two groups on board, we talked to our parent advisory committee. </p>
<h2>Gauging interest, engaging community</h2>
<p>At the parent advisory meeting, all teachers attended while I presented the benefits and rationale to parents. In a show of unity and shared leadership, my teachers and I answered parent questions. </p>
<p>After parents on the committee were cautiously excited by the prospect, we held a meeting for all other parents. When we had their support, we gave a presentation to the community at large. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-change-one-thing-in-education-community-school-partnerships-would-be-top-priority-188189">If I could change one thing in education: Community-school partnerships would be top priority</a>
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<p>At the conclusion of each meeting we had a short survey to gauge interest, and to provide us with data that we used to inform our decision to proceed.</p>
<p>At each step on this journey, I kept my district leadership informed and they always gave the same advice: Proceed with caution.</p>
<h2>No longer in danger of closing</h2>
<p>Before our school formally shifted to the Montessori model, apart from regular instruction, the only other choice parents had in the school district was French immersion. </p>
<p>We had to present our request to our board of trustees and make a request to become a school of choice. I presented, along with one teacher and one parent so we could offer different perspectives.</p>
<p>The elected Board of Education <a href="https://www.sd59.bc.ca/programs">at School District 59</a> granted our school the right to implement Montessori teaching. While this did not change our school’s enrolment overnight, six years later the school has more than doubled in size and is no longer in danger of closing.</p>
<p>That once tiny seed of an idea had grown to fruition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193187/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvia Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Building trusting relations among teachers, parents, a community and school administrators is important when schools enter decision-making processes about programs of choice.Sylvia Bell, Senior Instructor of Educational Leadership, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1924902022-11-01T20:16:59Z2022-11-01T20:16:59ZWhy attending publicly funded schools may help students become more culturally sensitive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492625/original/file-20221031-25-klp6rc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C148%2C4712%2C2341&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new study found that graduates of publicly funded schools were more likely to disagree with statements such as 'discrimination is no longer a major problem.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Being an intercultural citizen — someone who supports the principle of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878503001002001">multicultural state and also demonstrates positive personal attitudes towards diversity</a>
— is considered essential <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/in/documentViewer.xhtml?v=2.1.196&id=p::usmarcdef_0000147878&file=/in/rest/annotationSVC/DownloadWatermarkedAttachment/attach_import_c86aa337-73af-4adb-bbe3-f7ae0e8126cc%3F_%3D147878eng.pdf&locale=en&multi=true&ark=/ark:/48223/pf0000147878/PDF/147878eng.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A89%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22XYZ%22%7D%2C-75%2C627%2C0%5D">from a human rights perspective</a>. What kind of learning best supports its development? </p>
<p>To try to answer this question, I surveyed close to 400 recent Ontario high school graduates who attended regular and specialized programs in public and private schools and interviewed 14 students. </p>
<p>My survey questions sought to gauge the extent to which graduates demonstrated openness, interest, positivity and comfort with others. My study defined this as having <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878503001002001">an open intercultural</a> orientation.</p>
<p>I found that graduates who attended publicly funded schools were more likely to have open intercultural orientations than those who attended private schools. I also found positive associations between those who attended schools with students of different backgrounds and experiences. </p>
<p>Yet despite these positive associations, my research also suggested that learning environments may constrain intercultural relationships and fail to support racialized students, LGBTQ+ students and students from non-Christian religious backgrounds in expressing their views.</p>
<h2>Gauging perspectives</h2>
<p>To gauge the intercultural orientations of graduates, I used survey questions developed by the Ontario Human Rights Commission for <a href="https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/taking-the-pulse-peoples-opinions-human-rights-ontario">a 2017 survey that took the pulse on people’s opinions on human rights in the province</a>. </p>
<p>These questions presented graduates with examples of human rights accommodations and discriminatory statements and asked respondents the extent to which they agreed with them. I also asked graduates about the characteristics of the high schools they attended.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen congregating on steps in dicussion." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492619/original/file-20221031-25-ibj2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492619/original/file-20221031-25-ibj2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492619/original/file-20221031-25-ibj2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492619/original/file-20221031-25-ibj2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492619/original/file-20221031-25-ibj2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492619/original/file-20221031-25-ibj2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492619/original/file-20221031-25-ibj2i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students were asked their opinions concerning discrimination and human rights accommodations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of the 390 survey respondents, graduates self-identified their backgrounds, based on categories from the Ontario Human Rights Commission, as: British (84); other European ancestry (49); Chinese (50); South Asian (47); Black (30); Arab (19); Latin American (13); French (11); South East Asian (14); Indigenous (10); West Asian (7); Multiple (8); Filipino (6); Korean (6); Japanese (1). Thirty-five respondents preferred not to say.</p>
<p>Study participants were more likely to disagree with statements such as “we would be better off in Ontario if we stopped letting in so many immigrants,” “some jobs are better suited for men, some are better suited for women,” “discrimination is no longer a major problem,” if they attended schools that were publicly funded. </p>
<p>They were also more likely to disagree if they attended schools where many or most other students did not share their ethnicity or belong to their religious group.</p>
<h2>Friendships across differences</h2>
<p>My study, drawing on both survey questions and interviews, found that higher levels of diversity in school enrolment and graduates’ relationships — the friendships they had with people from different ethnicities and faiths — were related to higher levels of interculturalism. </p>
<p>Thirteen students I interviewed attended public schools throughout all or most of high school; one interviewee attended a private school. Eight interviewees self-identified as having European ancestry, four identified as Black and two as Asian. </p>
<p>Six of the seven interviewed graduates with higher levels of interculturalism had attended schools they reported had diverse enrolments and the seventh attended a school with a significant number of Indigenous students. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen working at a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492621/original/file-20221031-16-c0j3b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492621/original/file-20221031-16-c0j3b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492621/original/file-20221031-16-c0j3b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492621/original/file-20221031-16-c0j3b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492621/original/file-20221031-16-c0j3b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492621/original/file-20221031-16-c0j3b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492621/original/file-20221031-16-c0j3b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The study found an association between diversity in a school, the students’ interpersonal relationships and higher levels of intercultural openness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Marginalized perspectives in classrooms</h2>
<p>Graduates who had regular contact with or were members of groups that are often the target of discrimination — people of colour, LGBTQ+ graduates, those with disabilities and women — held fewer discriminatory views. </p>
<p>However, surveyed graduates who were Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim or Sikh, and interviewed graduates who were people of colour or LGBTQ+, reported less comfort expressing their views in their high schools. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-need-to-step-up-to-address-islamophobia-169937">Schools need to step up to address Islamophobia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This suggests that students who are racialized, from non-Christian faiths and LGBTQ+ may be more open to others, while experiencing more exclusion themselves. </p>
<p>It also suggests schools have work to do in order to make all students comfortable enough to share their perspectives. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-spark-change-within-our-unequal-education-system-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-3-152355">school teaching and learning environment, curricula and how teachers engage students in discussion all impact</a> what students learn and how they affirm cross-group relationships and perspectives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen drawing on a disc in a science demo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492617/original/file-20221031-13-zornp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492617/original/file-20221031-13-zornp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492617/original/file-20221031-13-zornp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492617/original/file-20221031-13-zornp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492617/original/file-20221031-13-zornp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492617/original/file-20221031-13-zornp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492617/original/file-20221031-13-zornp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Study participants who were members of groups more likely to have experienced discrimination had fewer discriminatory attitudes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Programs of choice</h2>
<p>My research also found that students developed relationships with those they interacted with on a daily basis at school. In specialized programs, this often meant only with others in their program.</p>
<p>As education researchers Gillian Parekh and Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández have found, students within <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40317-5_43">specialized arts, gifted and French immersion programs are disproportionately white and wealthy</a>. This should make us question whether such programs help graduates adapt successfully to environments of increasing diversity.</p>
<p>It is also a reason to ask whether such programs will build the more inclusive, innovative and safer future societies we want, or serve to rationalize and perpetuate division, inequality, distrust and violence.</p>
<p>Research shows that when parents choose educational programs based on large scale assessments and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2020.1843112">measurable achievement</a> outcomes, they are often choosing programs that rank <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.18546/LRE.14.3.06">racialized</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.12.005">socio-economic privilege</a> rather than quality teaching and learning. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-choice-policies-are-associated-with-increased-separation-of-students-by-social-class-149902">'School choice' policies are associated with increased separation of students by social class</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Graduates who attended specialized programs felt they were more academically inclined and motivated than those in regular programs, and graduates in regular programs had <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/1011668ar">internalized the view that</a> these programs were for students who were smart. </p>
<p>Taken together with <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831212468290">existing research</a>, the intercultural associations in this study suggest that enrolment in specialized programs, schools ranked by standardized assessments and private schools may work to <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1312139">silence minority voices</a> and help <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2013.816037">maintain cultures of privilege and power</a>.</p>
<h2>More research needed</h2>
<p>My study calls for more research on <a href="https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2013/08/unesco-united-nations-educational-scientific-and-cultural-organization/">intercultural dialogue through education</a>, one of the objectives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.</p>
<p>It asks how our publicly funded schools can move towards contextualizing academic merit and away from specialized programs and schools of choice. It also asks how these schools can ensure more students are comfortable in their classrooms and all student voices are heard.</p>
<p>Doing so would mean all students experience a sense of belonging and could provide Ontario high school students with greater understanding of the full range of cultural perspectives that exist in society.</p>
<p>This will be important for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10888683114111">creating intercultural citizens</a> poised to contribute to our societies, and enhancing the intercultural understanding and co-operation so urgently needed to tackle the democratic and climate crises that threaten our collective future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Hughes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A study finds that graduates who attended publicly funded schools were more likely to have open intercultural orientations than those who attended private schools.Wendy Hughes, EdD student, OISE, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1819172022-08-01T12:35:55Z2022-08-01T12:35:55ZCity residents who support neighborhood schools are often divided by race and purpose<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473644/original/file-20220712-19-iupfn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C54%2C4485%2C2949&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Local school support is fragmented by race and class.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/lonely-woman-royalty-free-image/488975197?adppopup=true">digitalskillet / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>When community activists protest issues related to local schools, they do so through movements that are largely segregated by race and class. This is what I found through my <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/this-is-our-school-race-and-community-resistance-to-school-reform/oclc/1311404138&referer=brief_results">research on community activism and school reform in Denver</a> over a span of five years.</p>
<p>Both Black and white community activists had an interest in keeping local schools from being closed. They also wanted better quality schools and more of a voice in what happens at those schools. But they seldom joined each other in their efforts because their battles for neighborhood schools were rooted in different experiences of gentrification.</p>
<p>Gentrification is when more-affluent residents move into low-income neighborhoods, changing the character and makeup of those neighborhoods and forcing low-income residents to move elsewhere due to rising rents. Gentrification often involves <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/marketing-schools-marketing-cities-who-wins-and-who-loses-when-schools-become-urban-amenities/oclc/7391947585&referer=brief_results">turning around, reforming, closing and replacing neighborhood schools</a>.</p>
<p>Black community activists viewed gentrification as an elite-driven process of exclusion and displacement, while white community activists viewed gentrification as an inevitable and even beneficial process.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Community movements can help bring about educational reforms. These <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/986861637">reforms</a> include improvements like more college prep courses, school-based community centers and food programs.</p>
<p>These movements don’t always succeed. I found in my research that different experiences of gentrification produce segregated movements to preserve neighborhood schools. This split <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859221086508">ultimately keeps activism fragmented</a> and prevents it from turning into a stronger, larger, more unified multiracial movement.</p>
<p>Although white, middle-class activists told me they valued diversity, none of them saw gentrification as problematic. They also felt their presence was beneficial to the neighborhood. They wanted schools to which their children could walk and with which they felt connected.</p>
<p>They also felt <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085916636656">entitled</a> to have more say in how neighborhood schools operate. This in turn alienated Black and Latino activists.</p>
<p>Black, low-income activists, on the other hand, saw school closures as a part of gentrification. For them, fighting against school closures was simply one piece of a larger fight against being <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2016.1245069">displaced by gentrification</a>.</p>
<p>These divergent views on gentrification as beneficial or destructive ensures that white, middle-class activists and Black, low-income activists will be unable to join forces. Consequently, they are unlikely to use each other’s strengths to fight for their common cause – which, in this case, is to sustain and provide resources to local neighborhood schools instead of closing them in favor of charter schools or moving them out of the neighborhood.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>It remains to be seen how segregated school reform movements, produced through different experiences of gentrification, can work through their deep divides and unite for their shared interests. White, middle-class activists in particular would need to better recognize their own participation in gentrification and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2009.56.4.647">affirm the grievances</a> of the low-income Black and Latino activists who could be in their coalition.</p>
<p>Research suggests that money and political will are already <a href="https://theconversation.com/states-are-favoring-school-choice-at-a-steep-cost-to-public-education-95395">stacked against</a> the prospect of high-quality, public neighborhood schools in every community. If segregated school reform movements could find common ground, they might be better positioned to fight against these forces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hava Rachel Gordon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Different views of gentrification drive divisions that keep school activists separated by race.Hava Rachel Gordon, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of DenverLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1826452022-05-27T12:29:48Z2022-05-27T12:29:48ZDesegregating schools requires more than giving parents free choices – a scholar studies the choices parents of all races make<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462572/original/file-20220511-11-l02abw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C3%2C2121%2C1400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Racial bias may play a role both in the schools that families choose for their children and the experiences their children have.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/child-dressed-in-red-walking-across-red-and-blue-royalty-free-image/1083675448">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/sociology/faculty/ch48723">Chantal Hailey</a> is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts.Her work focuses on the role of race and racism in how people choose schools and the other spaces they inhabit, and how racism influences inequality. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Chantal Hailey discusses her research about how race and racism influence school choice.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>What do you study?</strong></p>
<p>My research at this moment focuses on <a href="https://integratedschools.org/podcast/s7e14-unpacking-the-racial-hierarchy-in-school-choices/">school choice</a> in New York City, and particularly the role of race in how people choose high schools in New York City. This is important for a couple of reasons. One, New York City is the largest school district in the United States. Over a million kids attend school in this school district. </p>
<p>And in 2014, there was a <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5cx4b8pf">study</a> that came out that was completely surprising to me as someone who was new to New York City. It said that New York state’s schools were the most segregated in the country. And that was surprising for two reasons. One, we often think of New York and particularly New York City as this really racially diverse metropolitan area.</p>
<p>The other reason this is surprising is that, for high school in particular, there is school choice, which means students can choose to attend school anywhere across the city. A lot of the reasons we think about or talk about school segregation is that it’s tied to racially segregated housing and neighborhoods.</p>
<p>But in New York City, those two ties are broken up. People can technically choose to attend school anywhere across the city. But yet you still see these really stark patterns of segregation. </p>
<p>I ask in my work, why do we still see racial sorting patterns across schools and really stark racial segregation? I use both data from families’ actual applications to high schools and an experiment to understand why we see segregation in New York City schools.</p>
<p><strong>What’s one thing you want people to take away from your research?</strong></p>
<p>Even though we might think of school choice as a race-neutral policy, the ways in which families interact with school choice policies are very racialized. By that, I mean a couple of things: One, that means <a href="https://chantalahailey.com/working-papers/">families interpret information</a> about schools through what I call their racial prisms – that is, their racial biases toward groups, general cultural stereotypes around groups, other experiences and exposures to different racial groups.</p>
<p>So families are interpreting information about schools through race. They also have racial preferences for schools.</p>
<p>In the experiment and in the administrative data, I examine schools that are the exact same but differ only by their racial demographics. And <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00380407211065179">what I find</a> is that families across different racial groups express racial preferences for schools. So in particular, I find that white and Asian families have had really stark desires to avoid Black and Latino spaces.</p>
<p>I find that Latino families also want to avoid majority Black schools, and I find that Black families often desire not to to attend majority-white schools. So again, I really want to emphasize that even though we might think of school choice as race neutral or even a racial equity policy, the ways in which people are interacting with that policy are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08959048221087211">very racialized </a>and based upon their own experiences and exposures and cultural stereotypes in our larger structure of racism.</p>
<p><strong>What inspired you to study the field that you’re in right now?</strong></p>
<p>My own schooling experiences. I experienced many different kinds of racialized school spaces, from a majority-Black elementary school to racially mixed middle schools to a private, all-girls majority-white school. Across all those spaces, I saw different resources that were available. I saw different racialized treatment of students across these different spaces. </p>
<p>I knew that race was central in both how I experienced those spaces and in my decisions and my mom’s decisions to move me across these spaces. So I wanted to understand the patterns of race and school choice from a larger context and how it influences students’ racialized outcomes and their experiences within school spaces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182645/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chantal Hailey receives funding from the Population Research Center, awarded to the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD042849), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE1342536, the Institute of Education Sciences–funded Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training (IES-PIRT) Program at New York University, and the Ford Foundation Dissertation Grant.</span></em></p>Inspired by her own experience with the education system, a professor of sociology explores how race and racism influence school choice and education.Chantal Hailey, Assistant Professor of Sociology, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1686172021-09-30T12:28:46Z2021-09-30T12:28:46ZWhy charter schools are not as ‘public’ as they claim to be<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423930/original/file-20210929-65683-10mjd81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C0%2C5955%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Charter school enrollment reportedly grew 7% during the pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teacher-helping-student-at-classroom-using-face-royalty-free-image/1279381208?adppopup=true">FG Trade/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Proponents of charter schools insist that they are public schools “<a href="https://www.publiccharters.org/sites/default/files/migrated/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/What-is-a-Charter-School.pdf">open to all students</a>.” But the truth is more nuanced. As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-74qCF0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education policy researcher</a> – and as author of a <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/school%E2%80%99s-choice-9780807765814">new book about charter schools</a> I wrote with fellow researcher <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hU0ZOrYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Wagma Mommandi</a> – I have discovered that charter schools are not as accessible to the public as they are often made out to be.</p>
<p>This finding is particularly relevant in light of the fact that charter school enrollment <a href="https://www.k12dive.com/news/report-charter-school-enrollment-grew-7-during-pandemic/606936/">reportedly grew at a rapid rate</a> during the pandemic. Specifically, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, enrollment <a href="https://www.publiccharters.org/our-work/publications/voting-their-feet-state-level-analysis-public-charter-school-and-district">increased 7% from 2019-20 to 2020-21</a>. The organization says that is the biggest enrollment jump in a half-decade.</p>
<p>In our book, we identify and describe 13 different approaches that charters use to bring certain types of students in and push other kinds of students out.</p>
<p>Here are four examples from our book.</p>
<h2>1. Targeted marketing and advertising</h2>
<p>By using specific types of language in their promotional materials and by targeting those materials to specific audiences, charter schools often send a message that they are looking for a certain type of student. This is a way for charter schools to reach or appeal to a certain audience but not others, which in turn shapes who ends up applying to a given school.</p>
<p>For instance, Mueller Charter Leadership Academy in San Diego
<a href="https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/report-unequal-access-080116.pdf">told prospective families that</a> “All eligible students are welcome to apply. However, it should be noted that because this is a highly advanced, demanding program, it may not be appropriate for everyone.”</p>
<p>Targeted advertising can also carry a message. LISA Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2016 sent out <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160613191457/http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/local-news/charter-school-apologizes-for-recruiting-mailer">targeted recruitment mailers</a> to area neighborhoods – skipping over the three zip codes for the heavily Black and Latino parts of town.</p>
<p>“They’re sending a message they don’t want the kids on the east side of town,” Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160613191457/http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/local-news/charter-school-apologizes-for-recruiting-mailer">remarked</a> after his newspaper exposed the practice. The school later <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160613191457/http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/local-news/charter-school-apologizes-for-recruiting-mailer">apologized and explained</a> that its plan was to subsequently reach out to those populations through digital advertising.</p>
<h2>2. Conditional applications</h2>
<p>Charter schools sometimes <a href="https://www.acluaz.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/schools_choosing_students_web.pdf">require</a> multiple essays or a minimum GPA as a condition for initial or continuing enrollment.</p>
<p>Roseland Accelerated Middle School in Santa Rosa, California, for instance, required applicants to submit five short essays plus an autobiography using “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-charter-application-20160808-snap-story.html">well constructed and varied structure</a>.”</p>
<p>Minimum GPA requirements can be imposed at the application stage or once admitted. At Lushor Charter School in New Orleans, parents and students are asked to sign a contract that requires <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bismGcZXJYukiGosdkiGa_mVu73jqCoh3_IA-qwYGRA/edit">students to maintain a 2.0 GPA</a> in core subject areas for continued enrollment. </p>
<h2>3. Parents required to ‘volunteer’</h2>
<p>Some charter schools require parents to volunteer a certain amount of time at the school, or pay money in lieu of volunteering. Pembroke Pines Charter High School in Florida, for example, required each family to complete 30 such “<a href="http://academicvillage.pinescharter.net/DocumentCenter/View/519/Orientation-Packet-17-18?bidId=">volunteer hours</a>” per year, but allowed 20 of those hours to be “purchased” – US$100 total to buy out the first 10 hours and $200 more for the next 10 hours. These requirements place an additional burden, in terms of time and money, on families that are already struggling economically.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white female teacher talks to a Black student in a hallway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423933/original/file-20210929-66321-r8idci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘No excuses’ charter schools are known for harsh discipline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/female-teacher-reprimanding-a-male-student-royalty-free-image/84463668?adppopup=true">Monkey Business Images/Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Aggressive use of discipline.</h2>
<p>At so-called “no excuses” charters that <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/i-spent-a-year-and-a-half-at-a-no-excuses-charter-school-this-is-what-i-saw">“sweat the small stuff”</a>, students have – at least historically – been subjected to <a href="https://in.chalkbeat.org/2018/6/14/21105158/known-for-no-excuses-discipline-tindley-charter-network-loosens-policies-to-reduce-suspensions">harsh discipline</a> for minor infractions, such as chewing gum or failing to constantly keep their eyes on the teacher during class.</p>
<p>Some of these schools repeatedly suspend students and call parents to leave work to pick up a suspended child. The most high-profile example is Success Academy charter school in Fort Greene, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, where school leaders created a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/nyregion/at-a-success-academy-charter-school-singling-out-pupils-who-have-got-to-go.html">Got to Go</a>” list of 16 students who were then subjected to harassing discipline. In one case, a school official threatened to call 911 on a 6-year-old because the child was having a “bad day.” Nine of the 16 students did in fact withdraw from the school. </p>
<h2>Functioning like private schools</h2>
<p>Cumulatively, these and the other approaches we detail in our book – titled <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/school%E2%80%99s-choice-9780807765814">“School’s Choice”</a> – make charter schools more like private schools than the public schools they claim to be.</p>
<p>These practices influence which students are admitted to charter schools and then stay in those schools. Charter school choice therefore affects schools’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.20226">demographics</a>, including the degree to which they are segregated. </p>
<p>They affect funding equity as well, since state school-finance formulas often don’t adequately account for the actual costs of educating different students. In Pennsylvania, for example, charter schools are funded through a <a href="https://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Charter%20School%20Funding/CSFunding%2024PS17-1725-A.pdf">system that creates problematic incentives</a> related to access for students with special needs. As explained in a <a href="https://www.delcotimes.com/2015/08/24/guest-column-the-case-for-the-wolf-recovery-plan/">report by the state’s bipartisan legislative Special Education Funding Commission</a>, the current funding system provides charter schools “the same funding for each student with a disability, regardless of the severity of that student’s disability.”</p>
<p>“This creates a strong incentive to overidentify students with less costly disabilities and to under-identify (or under-enroll) students with more severe (or more costly) disabilities,” the report states. A speech impediment, for example, is an example of a <a href="https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/%7Eldg/ese424/class/understanding/types/chart.html#ld">mild disability</a>, versus a student with, say, a traumatic brain injury, which is a more severe disability. As the report explains, “A student with a mild disability can be a financial boon to a charter school, given that the funding the charter receives will exceed the charter’s cost to educate a child.”</p>
<p>Notably, Pennsylvania’s funding system does not create these incentives for district-run public schools.</p>
<p>These practices also can play a decisive role for comparisons of academic outcomes between charters and traditional public schools run by a school district. Overall, research <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/24/the-bottom-line-on-charter-school-studies/">consistently shows</a> little if any difference in the average test-score outcomes for the two types of schools. But the comparisons may not be fair and accurate. If charter schools can improve their test scores by screening out students they don’t think will do well, it can give them an unfair advantage in comparisons with public schools that accept all students.</p>
<h2>Policy incentives revisited</h2>
<p>So what can be done to make charter schools more accessible? One way is to change policy incentives such as the Pennsylvania funding system mentioned earlier. States can also change the way they reward schools for how well their students do on tests. Arizona, for instance, has policies that give extra <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2017/11/05/arizona-doug-ducey-performance-based-funding-boosts-higher-income-schools/782439001/">funding</a> to charters and other schools with higher achieving students.</p>
<p>In the final two chapters of our book, <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/school%E2%80%99s-choice-9780807765814">“School’s Choice,”</a> Mommandi and I point to a future with charter schools that don’t screen or push out students who are lower achieving or more expensive to educate. First, we hold up examples of charter schools that have resisted the incentives to limit access by, for example, working to support their communities’ most marginalized students. We then offer a design for a healthier charter school system that doesn’t put these exemplary schools at a disadvantage when it comes to accountability and funding systems.</p>
<p>Even in a post-pandemic world, charter school enrollment may continue to grow. But until the public has more access, charters will not be truly public.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168617/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Welner received funding from the Atlantic Philanthropies to support this research. </span></em></p>Charter school enrollment grew during the pandemic. But behind these schools’ rising popularity is a history of harsh discipline, inaccessibility and targeted marketing.Kevin Welner, Professor, Education Policy & Law; Director, National Education Policy Center, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1655812021-09-27T12:53:22Z2021-09-27T12:53:22ZHow civil rights activist Howard Fuller became a devout champion of school choice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417270/original/file-20210820-17-1cgcw33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5193%2C3466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Education reformer Howard Fuller has worked with GOP leaders in support of school vouchers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dr-howard-fuller-author-of-the-new-book-no-struggle-no-news-photo/455118800?adppopup=true">Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a longtime civil rights activist and education reformer, Howard Fuller has seen his support for school choice spark both <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/howard-fuller-a-civil-rights-warrior-or-billionares-tool/2014/09/09/3aedeff4-37c1-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html">controversy and confusion</a>. That’s because it aligns him with polarizing Republican figures that include <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/502961-trump-calls-school-choice-the-civil-rights-issue-of-the-decade">Donald Trump</a> and Trump’s former secretary of education, <a href="https://theconversation.com/through-her-divisive-rhetoric-education-secretary-devos-leaves-a-troubled-legacy-of-her-own-152914">Betsy DeVos</a>. </p>
<p>But unlike those figures, Fuller’s support for school choice is not rooted in a conservative agenda to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/05/20/school-privatization-movement-marches-on-during-pandemic/">privatize public schools</a>. Rather, it is grounded in his <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/we-are-an-african-people-9780199861477?cc=us&lang=en&">ongoing quest</a> to provide Black students a quality education by any means necessary. </p>
<p>I write about Fuller in my new book “<a href="http://www.beacon.org/The-Choice-We-Face-P1635.aspx">The Choice We Face</a>,” which traces the history of school choice as well as demands for radical education reform by Black activists. Unlike most other school choice advocates I interviewed, Fuller’s activism predates the current debate and has firm footing in the Black Power movement.</p>
<p>Now 80, Fuller <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2020/06/19/national-school-choice-advocate-howard-fuller-retire-marquette/3223241001/">retired in June 2020</a> from Marquette University, where he was a longtime education professor and founded the <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/education/centers-and-clinics/institute-for-the-transformation-of-learning.php">Institute for the Transformation of Learning</a> to improve education options for low-income students in Milwaukee. During the 1990s he served as superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools.</p>
<p>Here are five aspects from Fuller’s career that suggest a nuanced lens into the school choice movement. </p>
<h2>1. Advocated for Black Power in the 1960s</h2>
<p>Fuller first became involved in the civil rights movement when he joined the <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/Mss/MOM-Oral%20History/Fuller_Howard_oral_transcript%5B1%5D.pdf">Congress of Racial Equality</a> in 1964 as a graduate student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. </p>
<p>In Cleveland, Malcolm X delivered a version of the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-020-09484-5">Ballot or the Bullet</a>” speech <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/mupress/Fuller.shtml">in April 1964</a>. Days later, Rev. Bruce Klunder, a 27-year-old white Presbyterian minister, was accidentally <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/rev-bruce-klunder">crushed to death</a> by a bulldozer as he and several other activists protested the construction of a new, all-Black school. The school was the city’s attempt to avoid <a href="https://case.edu/ech/articles/k/klunder-bruce-w">desegregation</a>. </p>
<p>Fuller later helped establish and lead Malcolm X Liberation University in Raleigh, North Carolina. The independent Black-run school, which operated from 1969 to 1973, offered a unique African and African American studies curriculum as well as technical training for students to work as activists in the freedom struggle. </p>
<p>Controlling and safeguarding a school for one’s own community became a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/we-are-an-african-people-9780199861477?cc=us&lang=en&">defining principle</a> of the Black Power movement. For Fuller and others, education was liberation for Black communities. As <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/mupress/Fuller.shtml">Fuller described</a> it, the mission of the university was to educate students “totally committed to the liberation of all African people.” </p>
<h2>2. Proposed an all-Black school district in the 1980s</h2>
<p>In 1978, Fuller was embroiled in a struggle in Milwaukee to save his alma mater, North Division High School, <a href="https://dc.uwm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=etd">from closing</a>. That year, Derrick Bell, who is regarded as the “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-godfather-of-critical-race-theory-11624627522">godfather</a>” of <a href="https://theconversation.com/critical-race-theory-what-it-is-and-what-it-isnt-162752">critical race theory</a>, delivered an address in Milwaukee titled “Desegregation: A New Form of Discrimination.”</p>
<p>In his speech, Bell criticized education reforms that were more concerned with balancing racial demographics in schools than with improving Black education. He argued that building programs that did not always accept local Black students but made space for white students who lived outside the neighborhood <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1340546">hurt Black students</a>. Much like Fuller’s North Division High School, Black students were not guaranteed admission to the school closest to their home if those schools were designed to attract white students. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black-and-white photo of a man wearing a suit walking with a group of students, each one carrying a book." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3067%2C2023&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417268/original/file-20210820-13-1dnivi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Civil rights leader Derrick Bell fought for equitable education for Black students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/harvard-law-school-professor-derrick-bell-walking-w-a-group-news-photo/50591767?adppopup=true">Steve Liss/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several years later, Howard Fuller drafted the “<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-09-29-8703130605-story.html">Manifesto for New Directions in the Education of Black Children</a>.” The treatise proposed carving out an all-Black school district within the Milwaukee public school district to serve over <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351313841-13/case-separate-black-school-system-derrick-bell">6,000 students</a>. The district was to be controlled by and geared toward families of color. The plan was a response to a call made in 1935 by W.E.B. DuBois, who argued that Black educators and activists should <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2291871">invest more in building Black schools</a> than integrating hostile white schools. </p>
<h2>3. Supports school vouchers today</h2>
<p>Fuller’s proposal for an all-Black school district <a href="https://www.marquette.edu/mupress/Fuller.shtml">gained traction</a>, but Wisconsin legislators opted instead for a voucher plan in 1989 – the <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lfb/informational_papers/january_2003/0029_milwaukee_parental_choice_program_informational_paper_29.pdf">Milwaukee Parental Choice Program</a>. The program covered the tuition of students who wanted to enroll in private schools. </p>
<p>The Republican Party seized on the new voucher plan and pushed it through the state legislature. Ever since the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483">Brown v. Board of Education</a> decision in 1954, when the Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional, the Republican Party has increasingly aligned itself with school privatization efforts through <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2017/07/12/435629/racist-origins-private-school-vouchers/">vouchers</a> and “<a href="https://southernspaces.org/2019/segregationists-libertarians-and-modern-school-choice-movement/">freedom of choice</a>” plans. </p>
<p>Fuller also supported the Milwaukee voucher plan, as did some other Black activists, despite criticism from academics and organizations, <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/origins-milwaukee-parental-choice-program-no-struggle-no-progress-fuller/">including the NAACP</a>. </p>
<p>“If you’re drowning and a hand is extended to you, you don’t ask if the hand is attached to a Democrat or a Republican,” <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED531260">noted Wisconsin State Rep. Annette “Polly” Williams</a>, a Black Democrat who worked with Fuller to propose the legislation for a <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/for-maverick-polly-williams-the-mother-of-school-choice-the-point-was-always-to-empower-parents-and-improve-education-for-black-children/">separate school district</a> and also supported school vouchers.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<h2>4. Helped build the school choice movement</h2>
<p>Howard Fuller helped build the foundation for civil rights activists who are interested in school choice. As he told me during our interview in 2019, “I’ve always seen school choice from a social justice framework as opposed to a free market framework.”</p>
<p>Many activists saw it the same way.</p>
<p>For example, Wyatt Tee Walker, one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s trusted strategists, <a href="https://www.sisuluwalker.org/history">opened a charter school</a> in New York City in 1999. James Forman Jr., a civil rights lawyer, scholar, author and son of the prominent Black Panther Party organizer, opened a charter school in Washington, D.C. in 1997. Both leaders argued that failed desegregation attempts placed a <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/3146/">burden on Black families</a> by catering to white families without promising quality education for Black students. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, education activist Geoffrey Canada was <a href="https://www.wreg.com/news/2013-freedom-award-winners-named/">awarded the National Freedom Award</a> in 2013 for his charter school network, the <a href="https://hcz.org/our-purpose/our-history-zone-map/">Harlem Children’s Zone</a>. And in 2016, Martin Luther King III led one of the largest school choice rallies in the nation. “This is about freedom,” King told the crowd gathered in Florida, “the freedom to choose for your family and your child.” </p>
<p>Support for choice is not limited to a small cadre of activists. A <a href="https://www.federationforchildren.org/national-school-choice-poll-shows-67-of-voters-support-school-choice-2019/">2019 poll</a> by the American Federation for Children estimated that 73% of Latinos and 67% of African Americans support school choice. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mother, father and two small children hold hands while walking down street" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423182/original/file-20210924-24-glshmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Polling data shows a majority of African Americans support school choice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-myers-family-takes-a-walk-near-their-home-in-ne-news-photo/1208289093">Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>5. Drew scorn for working with Republicans</h2>
<p>Fuller allied with prominent Republicans on school choice. He <a href="https://archive.jsonline.com/news/opinion/howard-fuller-still-a-warrior-for-children-b99338584z1-273253071.html/">met with George W. Bush</a> in 1999 while Bush was running for president. A year earlier, he debated then-Sen. Barack Obama on the issue of vouchers. His school reform work in New Orleans in the 2000s led him to collaborate with Betsy DeVos, who at that time was a <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/education/article_e8dbd575-e6e4-5b1e-b4c3-02596e539cbb.html">GOP financier and charter school advocate</a>. He also later <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYg7jn1KQo8">supported DeVos’ contested nomination</a> for secretary of education. </p>
<p>Fuller drew <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/howard-fuller-a-civil-rights-warrior-or-billionares-tool/2014/09/09/3aedeff4-37c1-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html">strong criticism</a> from the press and some education reformers for his connections with the GOP, who earned a tarnished reputation on <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/emerging-republican-majority/595504/">civil rights</a>, and for embracing what many defined as a conservative agenda.</p>
<p>In his own defense, he noted in our interview that while he agrees with some Republicans on school choice, he strongly disagrees with them “on voter ID, on drug testing for people getting public assistance. I support the minimum wage. I support Obamacare.”</p>
<p>Though his position on school choice did not curry favors with <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807863466/more-than-one-struggle/">progressive education reformers</a>, Fuller demonstrated that not all demands for school choice are the same. For instance, he believes <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/segregated-schools-are-still-the-norm-howard-fuller-is-fine-with-that/">“mom and pop” charter schools</a> are more emblematic of the long history of the Black freedom struggle than schools proposed by national charter school networks, as these grassroots schools are more often driven by the demands of historically marginalized communities. </p>
<p>“You’re going to be fighting for something for entirely different reasons than some of the people out there who are your allies,” Fuller said in our interview. I believe this difference is imperative to understanding the nuance of school choice today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon Hale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Howard Fuller’s support for school choice is connected to the Black Power movement and a pursuit to provide Black students a quality education by any means necessary.Jon Hale, Associate Professor of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1586762021-04-22T12:25:08Z2021-04-22T12:25:08ZBest schools often out of reach for disadvantaged students in choice programs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395760/original/file-20210419-21-17ddx3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4019%2C3024&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Just 1 in 10 choice students from Detroit attend high-performing schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/students-attending-summer-school-at-munger-elementary-news-photo/1227984092?adppopup=true">Kayla Ruble for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Although school choice policies are <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/helping-school-choice-work">often presented</a> as a way to let families select the best schools for their children, my research found that few students using school choice can <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373721996738">access high-achieving schools</a> far from home. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373721996738">peer-reviewed study</a> – recently published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis – I examine who uses school choice and whether most families enroll their kids in schools with high test scores and graduation rates in Detroit. Ninety percent of Detroit students are economically disadvantaged.</p>
<p>Thanks to state laws passed in the mid-1990s, Detroit students can attend <a href="http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-451-1976-1-6A">charter schools</a>, various Detroit public schools and <a href="http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-388-1705">schools in nearby districts</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373721996738">Over 30% attend Detroit charter schools</a> and <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/motor-city-miles-student-travel-schools-and-around-detroit">20% attend schools outside Detroit</a>. The schools that are located in the school districts surrounding Detroit – and that serve Detroit students – have higher average test scores and graduation rates than Detroit schools.</p>
<p>Using education data for Detroit students during the 2017-18 school year, I found that students from poorer neighborhoods and families without access to a car were less likely to choose schools far from home. Instead, most families chose schools within Detroit that had better student outcomes than other Detroit schools but lower test scores than many schools in the surrounding school districts. Even those who left Detroit were less likely to attend the highest-achieving schools outside the city. </p>
<p>So, the ability to attend the highest-quality schools serving Detroit students is limited by distance even when many different options are available. This is the case even after accounting for other preferences, such as school demographics and programs. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Detroit isn’t unique in its school choice options. Almost all states permit public school students to attend <a href="http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/MBQuestNB2C?rep=CS2001">charter schools</a> or schools <a href="http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/MBQuestNB2n?rep=OE1801">in other districts</a>. These policies allow students to attend schools other than their neighborhood school. </p>
<p>In theory, school choice could raise student achievement by increasing access to high-achieving schools and creating competition among schools for students, forcing schools to do more to improve achievement to attract families. However, there is <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w28477">little evidence</a> that school choice policies broadly result in widespread achievement gains. </p>
<p>My research shows that one reason choice may fail to live up to its promise is that many students are unable to physically access high-performing schools outside their neighborhood. </p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Little is known about how local differences in school choice rules affect student access. These differences can include enrollment regulations, whether or not transportation is provided or the relative ease or difficulty of the application process.</p>
<p>In surveys and interviews, families report that inadequate transportation is a barrier not only to <a href="https://www.crpe.org/sites/default/files/crpe_how-parents-experience-public-school-choice_1_1.pdf">attending preferred schools</a> but to <a href="https://education.wayne.edu/detroit_ed_research/derp_why_do_detroit_students_miss_school_final.pdf">attending school regularly</a>. A 2020 study shows families choose higher-quality schools <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2020.103607">when they have access to transportation</a>, and <a href="https://www.daniellesandersonedwards.com/workings-papers/another-one-rides-the-bus-the-impact-of-school-transportation-on-student-outcomes-in-michigan/">school buses</a> can increase regular school attendance by as much as 25% for low-income students.</p>
<p>However, fewer than half of states <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED605559">make transportation mandatory</a> for students using school choice.</p>
<p>Additionally, <a href="https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/narrowing-charter-enrollment-gap-8235.html">complex application procedures</a> likely impede enrollment in choice schools, especially for families from underrepresented backgrounds.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>For upcoming studies, my colleagues and I collected data from Michigan school districts concerning local between-district enrollment policies. This includes enrollment caps, transportation provisions and application deadlines. We plan to examine how local school choice rules could allow families to self-segregate on the basis of race or income. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.daniellesandersonedwards.com/workings-papers/all-decisions-are-local-how-district-rules-can-promote-or-restrict-school-choices/">Preliminary findings</a> show, for example, that early application deadlines may restrict access to high-achieving districts for low-income students and students of color.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danielle Sanderson Edwards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Long distances often preclude families in the Motor City from sending their kids to the best schools in the area, new research shows.Danielle Sanderson Edwards, Ph.D. Candidate of Education Policy, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1499022021-02-01T19:45:31Z2021-02-01T19:45:31Z‘School choice’ policies are associated with increased separation of students by social class<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380309/original/file-20210123-19-qtl924.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=95%2C5%2C3898%2C2191&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Advocates of 'school choice' are often talking about wanting public funding for models like charter schools, but specialized programs should also be considered part of school choice debates. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-school-choice-is-a-better-way-than-the-public-school-pandemic-panic">Some commentators believe the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated</a> the need for parents to have more “school choice,” while others <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/stem-charter-school-in-calgary-approved-by-education-minister-1.5873575">say the pandemic shows the urgency of new schooling models</a> developed under <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/events/school-choice-in-a-time-of-transition/">school choice</a> policies.</p>
<p>But what is school choice? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-betsy-devos-and-school-choice-eight-essential-reads-62800">Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos and school choice: Eight essential reads</a>
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<p>The language of school choice supports the idea that education funding should follow students to the schools they believe best fit their learning needs. Education is then managed according to the free-market dynamics of consumer choice.</p>
<p>What this means is parents can choose among a variety of models that receive both state funds and financial support from personal and/or corporate sponsors. In the United States, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8TZIhpIV6c">and more recently</a> <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-alberta-public-charter-school-system/">in Canada</a>, when people talk about “<a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/david-staples-people-power-takes-another-step-forward-in-alberta-schools">school choice</a>” they’re often talking about how parents can or should be able to access funded or semi-funded school models like <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/30/18076968/charter-schools">charter schools</a>, <a href="https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/school-vouchers-what-you-need-to-know">school vouchers</a>, home schooling or private schools. </p>
<p>In England, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/03/choice-inequality-education-system-social-segregation">academy schools, enabled</a> under <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/21/contents">Tony Blair’s New Labour government</a>, and more traditional <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/education-34538222">grammar schools</a> are selective schools that enable school choice. Both are a <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2018/may/governments-grammar-school-funding-wont-improve-childrens-outcomes-say-experts">source of debate</a> in terms of how effective they are for student outcomes and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jun/30/coalition-education-reform-academies-fuelling-inequality">students’ social mobility</a>.</p>
<p>School choice alternatives position parents as consumers, and in many cases divert students and funding away from <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Comprehensive_school">comprehensive public schools</a>. This has been a noticeable trend in virtually all western industrialized democracies for more than 25 years. </p>
<h2>Reform agendas</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Brian Mulroney and Margaret Thatcher." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prime Minister Brian Mulroney welcomes Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the Economic Summit at Toronto City Hall, June 1988.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>We should be concerned about advocacy for school choice models, because recent cross-national research shows <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811398629">increased school choice is associated with increased social stratification in terms of social class</a>. School choice and competition tend to be associated with <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/jrcsh/files/fairness_pb2019_educational_inequalities.pdf">larger gaps between high and low socio-economic status student groups and lower student achievement outcomes nationally</a>. </p>
<p>The rise of school choice advocacy has coincided with and followed neo-liberal school reforms in industrialized countries since the 1980s. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot">Margaret Thatcher’s British government</a> of the late 1980s is largely credited with the close <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789400740945">coupling of curriculum requirements with standardized testing</a> that popularized the adoption of market logic to the realm of public institutions and schools. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-neoliberalism-84755">What exactly is neoliberalism?</a>
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<p>A key assumption is that choice and competition, like private sector companies, leads to a better product — in this case, better student outcomes and more effective schools and systems that are in the best interests of students. </p>
<p>School choice options such as charter schools are not as prominent in Canada as in other countries such as the U.S. and England: <a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Only Alberta now has charter schools</a>.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/charter-schools-largely-ignored-in-canada">think tanks like the Fraser Institute</a> in Canada <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/blogs/six-reasons-to-support-school-choice-in-canada">continue to call for greater options for schooling outside of traditional publicly funded settings</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Charter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta</a>
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<h2>Beyond the neighbourhood</h2>
<p>When students can enrol in schools beyond their local neighbourhood, this is a sign that school choice is increasing. <a href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/students-in-choice-programs-out-of-catchment-schools-face-dilemma-if-homeschooled-this-fall-1.5066854">French immersion</a>, arts-based schools and other specialized schools must therefore be considered part of the school choice debate since some parents may be more adept at seeking out and securing spots in these programs. </p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/publications/balancing-school-choice-and-equity-2592c974-en.htm">vast majority of education systems in developed countries around the world</a>, students are assigned to schools within their catchment area based on their home address. However, examples abound of how middle- and upper-class families have been able to use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2014.968245">strategies such as choosing rare curricular options to avoid attending assigned schools</a> — thereby further contributing to social segregation between schools.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/how-are-school-choice-policies-related-to-social-diversity-in-schools_2d448c77-en">one analysis conducted by the OECD between 2000 and 2015</a>, the share of 15-year-old students who were admitted to school based on their home address shrank by 20 per cent or more in Denmark, Hong Kong (China), Iceland, Japan, Sweden and the U.S., and by six per cent on average across <a href="https://www.oecd.org/">28 OECD countries</a> with comparable data. In Canada, more than 60 per cent of students attend schools that use residence-based criteria. These findings reflect a global and national trend of the availability of greater school-choice options for families.</p>
<h2>Impact of school choice</h2>
<p>It is difficult to make general statements about the impact of school choice and increased school competition that is applicable to all provinces or countries. Nevertheless, research does suggest some general patterns — many of which have remained fairly stable over time.</p>
<p>One analysis of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus/pisa-in-focus-n42-(eng)-final.pdf">65 countries</a> suggested that education systems where parents chose schools, and schools competed for enrolment, are often more socially segregated — often in relation to socio-economic differences. </p>
<p>The process of segregation is driven not only by parental preferences, but also by institutional factors. For example, schooling that promotes market-like dynamics are more likely to accentuate the separation of students based on socio-economic background. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Student on a city bus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An OECD analysis correlated a rising number of students attending school outside their neighbourhoods with rising school choice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Some of the factors that may aggravate socio-economic segregation in school-choice settings are the participation of for-profit providers, the use of school fees or tuition add-ons and allowing student selection. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fun-fair-and-all-school-fundraising-may-carry-hidden-costs-to-society-118883">The fun fair, and all school fundraising, may carry hidden costs to society</a>
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<p>These institutional features may be an important reason why socio-economic segregation has not <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-019-09437-3">significantly decreased in recent decades</a>.</p>
<p>Not only has for-profit participation been shown to be related to greater segregation, but it raises concerns about equity and the use of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-big-winners-from-swedens-for-profit-free-schools-are-companies-not-pupils-29929">public funding</a>. Reports of discriminatory practices towards <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2020.1744239">socio-economically disadvantaged students and those deemed “low achievers” are frequently reported in market-driven educational systems that allow academic selection</a>. </p>
<h2>System effectiveness and selectivity</h2>
<p>Countries (or in Canada, provinces) that demonstrate high student achievement outcomes and smaller achievement gaps between groups of students (high- versus low-socio-economic status, boys versus girls, non-immigrants versus immigrants) are generally lauded internationally. Other regions seek to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-PISA-Effect-on-Global-Educational-Governance/Volante/p/book/9780367884529">emulate their success and they become known as “reference societies</a>.”</p>
<p>Over the past two decades, countries such as <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-PISA-Effect-on-Global-Educational-Governance/Volante/p/book/9781138217416">Finland and Singapore, and education authorities in Canada (particularly Alberta), to name a few, have traditionally been viewed as effective systems</a> for simultaneously possessing high achievement and equity when judged against their international counterparts.</p>
<p>These countries differ substantially based on a variety of key dimensions such as cultural context, size of their student population and homogeneity, teacher training and compensation, to name but a few. Schools in these places are also less likely to select students, which reduces the prospect of social stratification. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen in Alberta how recent <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7000587/alberta-government-ucp-charter-schools-home-schooling-education-may/">charter school legislation</a> will affect equitable learning opportunities and outcomes. </p>
<h2>Education and evidence-based policy</h2>
<p>Although collaboration and co-operation are often at odds with private sector companies competing for market share, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13632430701379354">research suggests</a> these attributes are critically important for raising the prospects of all students within education systems. </p>
<p>Ultimately, policymakers need to continually interrogate research findings, free from political interference. They need to carefully consider both the positive and negative effects of a shift away from comprehensive public education systems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Volante receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Wyse has research funding from the Helen Hamlyn Trust, The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), and The Nuffield Foundation. He is the President of the British Education Research Association (BERA).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Gutiérrez receives funding from CONICYT PIA CJE grant number CIE160007 and the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/T008911/1). </span></em></p>Letting parents choose which school their child attends positions parents as consumers, and often diverts students and funding away from public schools.Louis Volante, Professor of Education, Brock UniversityDominic Wyse, Professor of Education, UCLGabriel Gutiérrez, Postdoctoral research fellow, London School of Economics and Political ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1476202020-10-27T14:09:02Z2020-10-27T14:09:02ZHow teachers’ union activism helped shift the U.S. election debate on education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365111/original/file-20201022-23-155av65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C104%2C5334%2C3011&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teacher activism in the U.S. has helped pushed the Democratic party towards renewed investment in public education. Children listen as former president Barack Obama campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, Oct. 21, 2020, in Philadelphia. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/ Matt Slocum)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the fight for the U.S. presidency, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has positioned protecting students, educators and getting schools open safely with smaller classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic as “<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?475377-1/joe-biden-remarks-reopening-schools-covid-19">a national emergency</a>.” On Sept. 2, he praised educators for their “grit,” and recognized their concerns for students.</p>
<p>Biden’s praise reflects his kindergarten to Grade 12 education plan, which calls on the federal government to “<a href="https://joebiden.com/education/">provide educators the support and respect they need and deserve” to and “start investing in our children at birth</a>.” </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden’s education plan.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In both tone and content, Biden’s plan <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-08-18/trump-biden-education-policy-election">represents an evolution in the focus of American education policy</a> and a departure from recent commitments of Democratic and Republican parties emphasizing school accountability through testing and expanding publicly funded, privately operated charter schools. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Charter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta</a>
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<p>In Canada, the challenges of reopening schools during COVID-19 have prompted suggestions that it’s time to think <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-school-choice-is-a-better-way-than-the-public-school-pandemic-panic">about “school choice”</a> through charter schools or <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/agar-its-time-to-talk-about-school-choice-in-canada">through school voucher</a> programs. Voucher programs provide parents with government grants, normally taken out of the general public school budget, that they can use for tuition at a private school. </p>
<p><a href="https://behindthenumbers.ca/2014/06/04/public-education-reform-lessons-from-the-united-states-on-what-not-to-do/">As I have argued</a>, Canadians should not ignore American experiences of expanding such kinds of schooling. </p>
<h2>Heavier federal role</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365356/original/file-20201025-20-1udahd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos speaks at the Phoenix International Academy, a charter school, in Phoenix, Oct. 15, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Matt York)</span></span>
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<p>In the U.S., states are primarily responsible for education policy. But the federal secretary of education establishes <a href="https://www.ed.gov/">policies on federal financial aid for education and distributes and monitors related funds, as well as collecting data, disseminating research</a> and ensuring <a href="https://www.waldenu.edu/online-doctoral-programs/doctor-of-education/resource/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-role-of-us-secretary-of-education#:%7E:text=The%20Secretary%20of%20Education%20Is,Department%20of%20Education%20in%201980">schools from pre-kindergarten to post-graduate institutions “comply with federal … laws governing funding and discrimination</a>.” The federal government began to play a role in kindergarten to Grade 12 education with the passage of the <a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/education/elementary-and-secondary-education-act-of-1965/">Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965</a>. </p>
<p>The act provided federal funding to states to support school districts with concentrations of poor students. The ESEA has to be reauthorized every five years, and subsequent presidents have expanded its scope through changes: for instance, to provide resources for educating students with disabilities or to address perceived challenges like gaps in student achievement.</p>
<p>In the late 1980s, concerns over student achievement led to the <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/diane-ravitch/the-death-and-life-of-the-great-american-school-system/9780465097999/">emergence of an education reform movement</a>. This movement emphasized standardized testing to hold schools accountable when students didn’t make adequate academic progress and the expansion of school choice through publicly funded, privately operated charter schools. </p>
<h2>Fractures in U.S. ‘education reform’</h2>
<p>Support for education reform was bipartisan in the U.S. Beginning in 1988, presidents used reauthorizations of the ESEA to emphasize greater accountability. Presidents <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html">George W. Bush</a> and <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">Barack Obama</a> went farthest to <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/the-nations-main-k-12-law-a-timeline.html">mandate testing and support charter schools</a>. </p>
<p>Since the late ‘80s, presidents have been careful not to explicitly attack the teaching profession. But some state and local politicians (particularly Republicans) were quick to place the blame for so-called failing schools on <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/christie-teachers-union-deserves-punch-in-the-face-120913">teachers’ unions</a>. Some media then followed suit, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/10/03/three-time-covers-show-how-american-attitudes-about-teachers-have-changed">focusing coverage</a> on “<a href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20081208,00.html">bad teachers</a>.” This dismissal of professional educators’ expertise, combined with cuts to education budgets, <a href="https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/the-prize/9780544810907">created openings for philanthropists to influence policy</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People carrying placards." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365373/original/file-20201025-16-12p69tr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Teachers, parents and students line up to protest for higher school funding and teacher pay in April 2018 in Phoenix before a teacher strike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)</span></span>
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<p>In the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Biden and other candidates distanced themselves from education reform priorities and called for renewed investment in public education after decades of austerity. </p>
<p>My research into their platforms shows explicit support for <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/reinvest-in-public-education/">raising teachers’ salaries</a>, <a href="https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/public-education">collective bargaining</a> and <a href="https://issues.juliancastro.com/people-first-education/">equitable educational opportunities for all students</a>. </p>
<p>Biden and many Democratic candidates have close personal connections to public education: Jill Biden, for example, has a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/19/jill-biden-plans-to-return-to-her-day-job-even-if-she-becomes-first-lady.html">doctorate in education and teaches at a community college</a>. But the shift among Democrats is also a response to the rise of education activism in the U.S. over the past decade, led by a more militant teachers’ union movement. It’s had some success refocusing public attention on what students and teachers need to succeed.</p>
<h2>A decade of education activism</h2>
<p>The Chicago Teachers’ Union’s (CTU) three-week strike in 2012 was a watershed moment. The CTU developed a bargaining platform, “<a href="https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/Chicago%20Teachers%20Union%20report_0.pdf">The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve</a>,” focused on student needs for a well-rounded curriculum, support services and fully funded schools. </p>
<p>To generate support for the platform and a possible strike, <a href="https://labornotes.org/store/jump-start-your-union">CTU leadership organized members and built relationships with parents, neighbourhood organizations and faith groups</a>. Other <a href="https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-1564-6">teachers’ unions adopted CTU’s method of focusing demands on how schools ought to care for the whole student</a>.</p>
<p>After the CTU strike, <a href="https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/618-more-than-a-score">the movement against high-stakes standardized testing</a> gained momentum. Critics drew attention to instructional time lost to testing, how testing narrowed the academic curriculum and problems using test scores to evaluate teachers and schools.</p>
<h2>Moratorium on expanding charter schools</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a suit at a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365354/original/file-20201025-13-9v2xid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called for a moratorium on expanding charter schools in 2016. Derrick Johnson, NAACP president, at a Boston news conference, Dec. 12, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Steven Senne)</span></span>
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<p>In 2016, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called for <a href="https://www.naacp.org/latest/statement-regarding-naacps-resolution-moratorium-charter-schools/">a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools</a> until they were subject to the same regulations as traditional public schools. Despite criticism for this stance voiced by some <a href="https://educationpost.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-naacps-stance-on-charter-schools/">education advocates in Black communities</a>, the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2017-07-27/naacp-again-calls-for-moratorium-on-charter-schools">NAACP renewed this call in 2017</a>.</p>
<p>Teachers’ activism reached a high point in 2018, when over <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/red-for-ed-movement-teachers-unions-covid-19">375,000 educators took part in work stoppages</a>. Teachers went on strike in <a href="https://beltpublishing.com/products/55-strong-inside-the-west-virginia-teachers-strike">West Virginia</a>, <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2955-red-state-revolt">Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona</a>, Colorado and North Carolina. </p>
<p>With broad public support, they demanded restoring funding to reverse declining wages and student resources and cuts to curriculum. When United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) went on strike in 2019 for “<a href="https://www.utla.net/sites/default/files/UTLA_SLASDFINAL.pdf">The Schools L.A. Children Deserve</a>,” a major concern was the impact of charter schools on funding for traditional public school schools. </p>
<p>Among UTLA’s supporters were Senators Kamala Harris, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/berniesanders/posts/i-stand-in-solidarity-with-utla-teachers-in-los-angeles-who-went-on-strike-today/2093366217385038/">Bernie Sanders</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1084852094794907650">Elizabeth Warren</a> — all eventual contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination.</p>
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<h2>Why Canadians should care</h2>
<p>Expanding charter schools and school vouchers, along with pressuring schools to accelerate standardized testing haven’t been a silver bullet for fixing problems in American public schools. </p>
<p>Rather, they contributed to the rise of a robust movement of educators, teachers’ unions and community and political allies who support a well-resourced public school system that both meets the needs of diverse students and values educators as professionals. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-funding-is-needed-for-student-well-being-not-only-coronavirus-safety-rules-140818">School funding is needed for student well-being, not only coronavirus safety rules</a>
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<p>Canada has a long history of teachers’ union activism. Teachers in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/1534959/b-c-teachers-strike-the-timeline/">British Columbia</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/teachers-work-to-rule-job-action-contract-dispute-union-nstu-1.3870651">Nova Scotia</a> and <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6420752/ontario-4-teachers-unions-job-action/">Ontario</a> have engaged in job actions since 2014. </p>
<p>As COVID-19 pressures provinces to re-think schooling, and as teachers’ unions continue to underscore the <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/08/31/news/ontario-teachers-unions-file-health-and-safety-complaint">perils of underfunding for both teacher and student health</a> and wellness, we should watch to see if the activism of Canadian educators and allies becomes even more dynamic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel K. Brickner has received funding from the Harrison-McCain Foundation. She has been a member of Educators for Social Justice-Nova Scotia and is currently the Chair of Democrats Abroad-Atlantic Provinces. </span></em></p>The push to expand charter schools in the U.S. contributed to a robust movement of teachers’ unions and allies demanding a well-resourced public school system.Rachel K. Brickner, Professor of Politics, Acadia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1410952020-09-10T12:53:08Z2020-09-10T12:53:08ZHow simple changes could improve secondary school choices<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357450/original/file-20200910-18-1bcrfxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5751%2C3819&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/clever-lady-with-curly-hair-reading-book-3807752/">Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year, parents in England face the difficult decision of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/schools-admissions">choosing which secondary school</a> they would like their child to attend. They submit a list of schools to a website run by their local authority, and each school then decides (usually, using a computer) which children satisfy their eligibility criteria. </p>
<p>However, most local authorities limit lists to <a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/files/298256363/LancasterWP2020_011.pdf">three</a> schools, and shortlists distort parental preferences. A school that a parent really likes might be an admission long shot, so the parent might decide to leave it off their list in favour of a safer bet. </p>
<p>Oversubscribed schools also prioritise pupils who live closest. House prices rise close to good schools, and this excludes children whose parents can’t afford the price of making the cut.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/files/298256363/LancasterWP2020_011.pdf">Our latest research</a> shows that parents have to juggle a range of issues when choosing a school. It also suggests that better use of technology could make the system work better.</p>
<h2>Parental choices</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/files/298256363/LancasterWP2020_011.pdf">Our research</a> estimates what drives parental choices. We matched data on parents’ lists of school choices to the Department of Education’s <a href="https://find-npd-data.education.gov.uk/">National Pupil Database</a>, which contains data on all pupils in all state schools in England. </p>
<p>When we examined the choices made by parents, we found many idiosyncrasies in the data. Many parents list just one school, so failing to get into their one preferred school would result in being allocated a place wherever capacity exists.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Girl waiting at bus stop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357453/original/file-20200910-19-53z8zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357453/original/file-20200910-19-53z8zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357453/original/file-20200910-19-53z8zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357453/original/file-20200910-19-53z8zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357453/original/file-20200910-19-53z8zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357453/original/file-20200910-19-53z8zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357453/original/file-20200910-19-53z8zj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Our research shows the extent to which parents are prepared to send children to more distant schools of greater quality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/serious-young-woman-waiting-for-transport-in-street-3974748/">Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels</a></span>
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<p>More than half don’t list local schools, suggesting widespread dissatisfaction with nearby possibilities. Faced with either poor local choices or good schools with a low chance of admission success, parents would rather travel to get better choices that are not such long shots. </p>
<p>Many choose to list schools further away that are lower quality over local alternatives that are difficult to get into. There might be for good reasons for parents making apparently strange choices, such as prioritising a school with a good reputation for sports. But an odd choice could also be the result of poor information.</p>
<p>We found that parents place considerable weight on school quality (measured by the achievement of five or more GCSEs). We estimate that, on average, parents would be prepared for their child to travel around 0.9 km further to achieve 10% higher quality. Minority ethnic parents are, on average, willing to travel a lot further. Despite this, they are an average of 17% less likely to secure their first-choice school. Many households seem to be willing to carry a big burden to access better schools.</p>
<p>We also looked at the extent to which parents behaved strategically – avoiding attractive schools that were admission long shots. Our modelling suggested parents who live in areas with limited good school capacity are more cautious, meaning that they are disproportionately likely to list the less good local schools.</p>
<h2>Making better choices</h2>
<p>Simply increasing the number of schools parents are allowed to rank would be a start in making the system work better. This would reduce the problem of forcing parents to play safe. </p>
<p>Our modelling also offers the prospect of allowing for better evidence-based choices. An obvious way of doing this would be to use our research as the basis of an algorithm – of the sort that we are familiar with to choose hotels or holiday packages. The consumer sets the criteria: say, a faith school of minimum quality and maximum distance. </p>
<p>The options could be visualised to allow parents to see a map of schools that meet the criteria. One could go further and use the modelling to suggest a list. It could also show how risky any list is – and even calculate the possibility of ending up being allocated a school not on your list but that has spare capacity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="School library" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357451/original/file-20200910-22-1o8idfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357451/original/file-20200910-22-1o8idfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357451/original/file-20200910-22-1o8idfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357451/original/file-20200910-22-1o8idfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357451/original/file-20200910-22-1o8idfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357451/original/file-20200910-22-1o8idfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357451/original/file-20200910-22-1o8idfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An algorithm would allow parents to search for particular school attributes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-bookshelf-with-books-1370296/">Element5 Digital/Pexels</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>More complex coding could recommend a ranking to parents, based on their location, and predict their child’s chances of getting into the ranked schools. It could pick out reasonably good schools at which they might be fairly sure of securing a place. It could also highlight long shots that might be sensible to include at the top of an otherwise relatively safe list. </p>
<p>Right now, advice provided to parents by local authorities is limited. None seem to provide even simple visualisations of the possible choices and their respective qualities and proximities. Even the simple things that we have come to expect from hotel listings seem to have defeated local authorities. Providing such information could ensure that parents are well informed about the good schools that they are likely to gain admission to – and might be nudged towards listing them.</p>
<p>All of this could ensure better matches of pupils to schools and better use of spare school capacity. It could especially help parents who find the existing system difficult to engage with.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Walker has received funding from the Nuffield Trust to support this research. </span></em></p>More choice and greater information can allow parents to make more informed decisions.Ian Walker, Professor in the Department of Economics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1414342020-07-07T19:54:09Z2020-07-07T19:54:09ZCharter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345384/original/file-20200702-111269-3z5ji8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C251%2C2658%2C1396&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beginning in September in Alberta, an individual can apply directly to the provincial government when seeking to establish a new charter school. Here, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, March 20, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Alberta, the once-radical idea of charter schools, placed largely on the back burner for the past two decades, has been brought back to the fore under Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party (UCP). The party’s <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/assets/documents/educ-choice-in-education-act-what-is-changing.pdf">Choice in Education Act</a> will come <a href="https://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=bills_status&selectbill=015&legl=30&session=2">into force Sept. 1, after the government passed it June 24</a>. </p>
<p>Under the new act, individuals will be able to <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7000587/alberta-government-ucp-charter-schools-home-schooling-education-may/">bypass the local school board</a> and apply directly to the provincial government to seek to establish a charter school. This follows a move last fall by the newly elected UCP to <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/parents-educators-worry-ucps-amended-education-act-creates-inequity-in-public-system">remove the cap</a> (previously 15) on the number of <a href="http://www.taapcs.ca">charter schools in the province</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.taapcs.ca/members-2/">In Alberta</a>, there are now <a href="https://education.alberta.ca/alberta-education/school-authority-index/everyone/school-authority-information-reports/">13 charter school authorities operating more than 20 schools or campuses</a> — for instance, the province lists seven Calgary schools run by the <a href="https://www.ffca-calgary.com/">Foundations for the Future Charter Academy</a>. </p>
<p>These recent developments provide the opportunity to better understand what charter schools are, how they’ve been taken up by advocates of educational reform and how their re-emergence and promotion under the UCP reflects the influence of neoconservative and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-neoliberalism-84755">neoliberal ideologies</a> in education. </p>
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<h2>Roots of charter schools</h2>
<p>Charter schools emerged largely from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chicago-school-of-economics">Chicago School of Economics</a>, inspired by the ideas of prominent thinkers like <a href="https://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEEFriedmanRoleOfGovttable.pdf">Milton Friedman</a>. Friedman argued state “monopoly” over public education was problematic, and thus education should be instead subject to consumer choices and the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/politics-markets-and-americas-schools/">dynamics of the free market</a>.</p>
<p>While differing based on country and context, charter schools can be understood as a hybrid type of school — both public and private. Individuals or groups may seek <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/charter-schools.aspx">to establish a school</a> under a particular educational philosophy or approach. This charter then guides the administration and organization of the school. </p>
<p>To date, Alberta’s charter schools include a schools for children who are “<a href="https://www.newhorizons.ca/about/">academically gifted</a>,” <a href="https://indspire.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/MECCS-Final.pdf">an Indigenous school</a> and a school <a href="http://esl-almadina.com/about/about-us/">for children learning English</a>.</p>
<p>As public institutions, however, charter schools must still abide by the <a href="https://education.alberta.ca/media/3227599/charter-schools-handbook-september-2015.pdf">policies, rules and regulations</a> set out by the government. In this way, these schools can be seen as offering students and parents choice different from the local public school.</p>
<p>With funding is typically determined on a per-pupil basis, if parents decide not to choose a particular charter school, it may then close. Charter schools are also subject to competitive market pressures and often have to raise capital funding for expenses such as the school building or transportation themselves. That means charter schools may turn to fundraising from <a href="https://www.thecaafoundation.com/about1">community-based</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHRYAHyplko">corporate</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/enbridge/enbridge-helps-mother-earth-childrens-charter-school-find-new-home/400919133287752/">sources</a>. In the U.S., for instance, some charter schools can be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_htSPGAY7I">run as for-profit</a> entities.</p>
<h2>Entry into Alberta</h2>
<p>Charter schools, once hailed as a solution to <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=PjqcqVl98zQC&source=gbs_navlinks_s">the numerous apparent failures</a> of the public education system, arrived in <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-alberta-public-charter-school-system/">Alberta with the first school opening in 1994</a>, just two years after the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/charter-school">first charter school opened in the United States</a>. </p>
<p>Up until recently, discussion around their future or promise in Alberta has been somewhat ambiguous. But <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/bill-8-gsas-school-fees-power-of-boards-to-be-tweaked-under-education-amendment-act">since the UCP</a> was elected last year, the provincial government has sought to revive charter schools as part of broader educational and public sector reforms. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-jason-kenneys-common-sense-education-platform-gets-it-wrong-119069">Why Jason Kenney’s 'common sense' education platform gets it wrong</a>
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</em>
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<h2>‘School choice’</h2>
<p>As the UCP government’s <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/speech-from-the-throne-to-kick-off-11-week-session">throne speech</a> outlined, the party stresses expanding school choice. For instance, new legislation makes it easier for parents to home-school since they will <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/bill-15-choice-in-education-act-introduced-1.5587398">no longer need Alberta school board supervision to do so</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1266379143094009859"}"></div></p>
<p>Last fall, the UCP also <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/public-alberta-school-boards-1.5275561">removed the word “public”</a> from Alberta’s public schools boards, a move that can be critically viewed as <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/kenney-government-orders-alberta-public-schools-to-remove-the-word-public-from-their-name/">an attempt to obfuscate</a> the demarcation between public and private schools. </p>
<p>Kenney, himself a <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jason-kenney">product of elite private schooling</a>, appears focused on the expansion of more privatized forms of education. </p>
<p>Charter advocates contend that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/431184?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">as schools of choice</a>, they offer students more specialized and meaningful educational experiences. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2017/12/Blasetti%3ASilva.pdf">Critics often respond</a> that choice is already available in public school systems and that charters don’t demonstrate any significant improvements in performance, and may in fact <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19879714">further segregate</a> students, leading to greater educational inequalities.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.teachers.ab.ca/News%20Room/ata%20news/Vol53/Number-11/Pages/Q-and-A-Charter-education-is-not-public-education.aspx">Educational labour unions remain unsupportive</a> as well, as charters often seek to hire <a href="https://slate.com/business/2016/09/the-lengths-that-charter-schools-go-to-when-their-teachers-try-to-form-unions.html">non-unionized</a> teachers. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the evidence <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED526353.pdf">remains mixed</a> as to whether charters provide any significant improvements to student achievement. The research and policy landscape is often contentious and heavily influenced by competing <a href="https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research/selected-publications/the-institutional-landscape-of-interest-group-politics-and-school-choice">interest groups</a>.</p>
<h2>Privatization</h2>
<p>In Canada, charter schools only exist in Alberta — a province with a <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/the-politics-of-educational-reform-in-alberta-2">history of school choice policies</a>. As I discussed in my research into <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2015.991162">the development of Alberta’s charter schools</a>, their existence can be largely attributed to political ideas rather than educational developments in the province. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345925/original/file-20200707-27867-6cggty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Charter schools were first introduced in Alberta under former premier Ralph Klein’s Progressive Conservative Party in 1994. Here, Klein in front of a campaign poster in February 2001.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1994, when charters were first introduced in Alberta, it was under a <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ralph-klein">provincial government focused largely on values of individualism, consumerism, privatization, commercialization and deficit reduction</a>. Charter schools emerged as they fit in under this particular political and economic ideology. </p>
<p>Today we see many of the <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/united-conservative-party-mla-the-idea-of-public-education-is-inanity-and-absolutely-backwards">same values</a> once again on the rise in Alberta at the same time as charters and “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/charter-school-cap-removal-criticized-1.5164989">school choice” ideas are being amplified</a>.</p>
<p>Neoconservative and neoliberal advocates of educational reform in particular continue to push them forward — <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/21624">as witnessed in the United States</a> under <a href="https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/local-perspectives/grant-frost-will-trumps-war-on-public-schools-cross-into-canada-410788/">President Donald Trump and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-cyber-charter-schools-are-and-why-their-growth-should-worry-us-68471">What cyber charter schools are and why their growth should worry us</a>
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<h2>Educational reforms and democracy</h2>
<p>While educational reforms can and must occur in response to a changing world, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/public-school-and-political-ideas-1">public schools are meant to be resistant</a> to political changes because they represent our core democratic values and are meant to develop to serve the needs of a diverse society.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly then, the debate over charter schools points to the fundamental political nature of public education. </p>
<p>Recent pre-pandemic educational reforms proposed in Ontario for mandatory online courses were seen by many educators, parents and students not as learning improvements, but rather as reforms motivated by a Conservative government with similar neoliberal <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2020/01/13/secret-document-shows-ford-government-changed-its-mind-before-making-online-course-mandatory-for-high-schoolers.html">politics, ideas and value systems</a>. </p>
<p>Ontario also touted its <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/edu/en/2019/11/ontario-brings-learning-into-the-digital-age.html">“enhanced” (mandatory) online learning as offering “more choice.”</a> Those advocating <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8TZIhpIV6c">school vouchers</a> and the <a href="https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/matthew-lau-after-doug-ford-maybe-ontarios-liberals-will-finally-embrace-school-choice">expansion of charter schools</a> in Ontario have used the same rhetoric. </p>
<h2>Education as industry?</h2>
<p>With Alberta’s charter schools set now to expand, as I asserted in 2015, it is worth noting that to date, the rest of Canada has continued to largely — <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/42892">though not entirely</a> — resist calls for “school choice” that imply forms of privatization. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, across Canada, chronic public underfunding of education has forced school boards to seek <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-high-schools-are-underfunded-and-turning-to-international-tuition-to-help-127753">tuition revenue</a> and promote <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/secret-document-exposes-doug-fords-plan-to-replace-human-teachers-with-cheap-computers/">for-profit curriculums</a>.</p>
<p>The presence of privatization looms large and when education is defined as an industry, there will always be those who seek to <a href="https://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/edtech-industry-profit-from-covid-19-lahm-200323/">profit from it</a>. </p>
<p>As Canadians, the rejection of charter schools demonstrates our collective commitment to the some of the most important core principles of public education, including access, quality and equity. The idea of charter schools allows us to think deeply about our core values surrounding public education and the many promises which it’s asked to uphold.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Mindzak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>First, the United Conservative Party lifted the cap on charter schools, and now new legislation has cut school boards out of the process to establish a charter school.Michael Mindzak, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1376912020-05-11T11:50:40Z2020-05-11T11:50:40ZFor parents of color, schooling at home can be an act of resistance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332067/original/file-20200501-42918-1qa6knh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C5109%2C2777&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Educating your children at home brings the power to choose what they learn.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/son-reading-to-dad-royalty-free-image/638761855?adppopup=true">MoMo Productions/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>My 6-year-old hates the British. To be more specific, the British Empire that ruled over up to <a href="https://www.theweek.co.uk/history/93820/british-empire-how-big-was-it-and-why-did-it-collapse">a quarter of the world’s land</a> by the early 1900s. Hates that one of the biggest diamonds in the world, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-koh-i-noor-diamondand-why-british-wont-give-it-back-180964660/">found in India</a> over 1,000 years ago, now sits in the queen’s set of crown jewels. Hates that they <a href="http://origins.osu.edu/milestones/december-2017-india-pakistan-partition">drew up borders quickly</a> and exited South Asia in the 1940s, resulting in the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple">death of millions</a>, and making his grandfather and great-grandparents refugees in the newly formed nation of India.</p>
<p>How does my 6-year-old know all about this? Well, because we talk about it and have a lot of books at home. We have always read <a href="http://www.niahouse.org/blog-fulton/2018/10/19/45-childrens-books-about-south-asian-history-and-culturenbsp">books about South Asian culture and history</a>. And now that we have more flexible schedules since we have to work at home – and the kiddo has to do school at home – we have even more time together. He naturally gravitates to the books with characters that look like him.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332054/original/file-20200501-42923-qk085k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332054/original/file-20200501-42923-qk085k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332054/original/file-20200501-42923-qk085k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332054/original/file-20200501-42923-qk085k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332054/original/file-20200501-42923-qk085k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332054/original/file-20200501-42923-qk085k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332054/original/file-20200501-42923-qk085k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sampling of books at the author’s home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monisha Bajaj</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LwU2EpEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of multicultural education</a>, I know that children are able to understand complex issues, like <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/24/716700866/talking-race-with-young-children">racism</a>, if they are broken down and explained in a way that they can grasp. So, when books talk about subjects like segregation, slavery, colonialism or sexism, my partner and I explain those terms as best we can.</p>
<h2>A different worldview</h2>
<p>Conversations about world history in our home go a little like this: </p>
<p>Parent: “People from Europe really liked the spices and cloth from South Asia, so they wanted to go there to buy stuff.” </p>
<p>Kiddo: “Even Christopher Columbus was lost and trying to find India, right?” </p>
<p>Parent: “Right! Europeans went to South Asia, first to trade and buy things. But then they wanted more power, and the British decided to take over and bully people around.”</p>
<p>Kiddo: “How did they bully them?”</p>
<p>Parent: “They made people give them money (land-taxes), didn’t let them make their own clothes to wear, and didn’t even let them make salt out of the water in the sea next to where they lived!”</p>
<p>Books like “<a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/elizabeth-cody-kimmel/a-taste-of-freedom/">A Taste of Freedom</a>,” which recounts Gandhi’s famed <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/india/salt-march">Salt March</a> to protest British rule, and resources like the website and podcast “<a href="https://parentingforliberation.org/">Parenting for Liberation</a>,” certainly help with these conversations.</p>
<p>The coronavirus pandemic has brought on a lot of hardship and heartache to families everywhere, and it has also made it easier for parents like us to spend more time with our children. For parents of color, this means a chance to educate our children as we see fit. We have an opportunity to offer counter-stories that focus on people who look like us, as opposed to having our children forced to learn from narratives written from a European or white perspective.</p>
<p>Our family traces our origins to different parts of South Asia, and we are using this time at home to read about anti-colonial and anti-caste activists like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bhimrao-Ramji-Ambedkar">B.R. Ambedkar</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/elm-2019/dakshayini-velayudhan-d53a91ca9f1d">Dakshayani Velayudhan</a>, people my son wouldn’t ever encounter in his school curriculum. </p>
<h2>Racism in schools and society</h2>
<p>There’s no shortage of examples of inaccurate textbooks like the one in Texas that made headlines a few years ago for referring to enslaved people as immigrant “<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/10/23/450826208/why-calling-slaves-workers-is-more-than-an-editing-error">workers from Africa</a>.”</p>
<p>There is also a cultural mismatch between America’s teachers and students – <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/08/15/the-nations-teaching-force-is-still-mostly.html">80% of America’s teachers are white</a>, but <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_cge.pdf">more than half</a> of the nation’s students are children of color. And this mismatch matters: <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2018-11-23/black-teachers-improve-outcomes-for-black-students">Studies show</a> that black students are more likely to graduate from high school if they have an African American teacher in elementary school.</p>
<p>No matter the teacher’s ethnic identity, research shows that students are <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/reports/culturally-responsive-teaching/understanding-culturally-responsive-teaching/">more interested in school and do better</a> when they feel like they can relate to what’s being taught and when the lessons reflect their own heritage and history. This is where schooling your children at home can make a difference. That is, parents can select lessons on historical or contemporary issues that do reflect their children’s history and heritage.</p>
<h2>Hard histories</h2>
<p>No doubt, some social justice education can get to be too much and provide too early an exposure to graphic images of violence and suffering. For example, a friend’s son at age 5 watched a video at a neighbor’s house that showed the targeting of an African American boy by the police – something that is part of a larger <a href="http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/PoliceUseOfForceAfrosUSA.pdf">documented issue of police violence against black Americans in the U.S.</a> Afterward, the child would get quiet and scared whenever he saw a police officer.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332070/original/file-20200501-42913-srsmqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332070/original/file-20200501-42913-srsmqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332070/original/file-20200501-42913-srsmqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332070/original/file-20200501-42913-srsmqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332070/original/file-20200501-42913-srsmqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332070/original/file-20200501-42913-srsmqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332070/original/file-20200501-42913-srsmqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332070/original/file-20200501-42913-srsmqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Don’t let children watch disturbing scenes on their own.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/parents-looking-at-a-laptop-computer-at-home-with-royalty-free-image/1189239933?adppopup=true">davidf/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>“<a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/8/12401792/police-black-parents-the-talk">The talk</a>,” or discussions African American parents have with their children about the police, is both necessary and real. But, all forms of racial justice education have to be done with nuance and from a <a href="https://parentingforliberation.org/">place of liberation</a> rather than fear. </p>
<p>Earlier this year, when my son and I read a book about abolitionist and Civil War hero Harriet Tubman, we listened to some songs on YouTube from the movie “<a href="https://www.focusfeatures.com/harriet">Harriet</a>,” but I didn’t let him see the video. Studies show that early exposure to graphic violence can <a href="https://dartcenter.org/content/children-and-media-coverage-trauma">cause trauma and distress</a>, so home-based social justice education has to be delivered with care and attention. That means carefully preselecting videos and clips to watch with children to screen for excessive violence, and taking time to explain tough concepts and issues.</p>
<h2>In search of liberation</h2>
<p>In reading and discussions in our family, we focus on movements and activists. Educator and TV legend <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mister-rogers-faith-shaped-his-idea-of-childrens-television-123313">Fred Rogers</a> famously said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/13/mr-fred-rogers-find-helpers-quote-coronavirus-how-help-neighbors-kindness/5041005002/">Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping</a>.’” I would modify that Mister Rogers quote slightly for parents of color to say “When you see injustice, look for the people who are resisting. You will always find people who are resisting.” </p>
<p>While my kiddo still hates “the British,” he also knows about the <a href="http://frederickdouglassinbritain.com/">British abolitionists</a> who helped former slave, activist and author <a href="https://theconversation.com/frederick-douglass-july-4th-and-remembering-babylon-in-america-79246">Frederick Douglass</a> fight for an end to slavery in the 1800s. </p>
<p>Schooling at home provides a unique chance for children of color to build up their knowledge of their histories and larger struggles for social and racial justice locally and globally. Perhaps this moment can be an opportunity, a place of possibility within the overwhelming and daunting task of parenting during the pandemic.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137691/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monisha Bajaj does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of multicultural education says the COVID-19 pandemic gives parents of color the chance to choose what their children learn at home.Monisha Bajaj, Professor of International and Multicultural Education, University of San FranciscoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1305272020-01-30T19:07:41Z2020-01-30T19:07:41ZWant to send your child to a school outside your zone? This system could give you the choice<p>Australian governments should consider giving parents and children greater choice of public schools through a transfer system that promotes exchange across catchment areas and prioritises disadvantaged students.</p>
<p>Most big cities in Australia use “<a href="https://www.goodschools.com.au/insights/education-updates/choosing-a-school-outside-of-your-local-area">catchment areas</a>” for assigning students to public schools. Most public school students <a href="https://wattlegrov-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/doe/sws/schools/w/wattlegrov-p/localcontent/Non-Local_Enrolment_Application_2018.pdf">attend a school in their catchment</a> area.</p>
<p>This system <a href="https://cpd.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/The-State-of-Australias-Schools.pdf">effectively limits</a> public school enrolment to where people can afford to live. Schools in disadvantaged areas often suffer poor resourcing or other issues. This entrenches disadvantage and makes it more difficult for families to break out of the cycle of poverty.</p>
<p>Countries like the US and the UK use transfer systems to ensure children in lower socio-economic areas have better access to schools of their choice. We have developed a model of how this could work in Australia.</p>
<h2>Why students need options</h2>
<p>Parents and students might prefer a school that isn’t their local for many reasons. These include being close to work or grandparents, wanting access to specialised programs in areas such as sport or drama, or better safety along with higher academic results. </p>
<p>Currently, students can <a href="https://www.goodschools.com.au/insights/education-updates/choosing-a-school-outside-of-your-local-area">apply to attend</a> a public school outside their catchment area by providing a valid reason. This could be that the school in their catchment is full or they need specialised education which is not available in their catchment school. </p>
<p>But schools’ processes of considering these applications are not transparent and there is no regulated mechanism to ensure consistency.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/choosing-a-school-for-your-kid-heres-how-other-australian-parents-do-it-126011">Choosing a school for your kid? Here's how other Australian parents do it</a>
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<p>In Australia, local <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Australia">public schools enrol</a> around 60% of all students. As a 2016 Centre for Policy Development <a href="https://cpd.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/The-State-of-Australias-Schools.pdf">report</a> argued, school equity in Australia is in decline</p>
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<p>especially in metropolitan areas, and among secondary schools. A child’s background is having a greater impact on their ability to succeed at school. </p>
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<p>A more regulated and carefully balanced exchange process could address this problem and avoid exacerbating inequalities.</p>
<p>My colleagues Professor Fuhito Kojima from Stanford University and Associate Professor M. Bumin Yenmez from Boston College and I have developed a new system for school transfers that would improve the ability for students to transfer across catchment areas. </p>
<h2>How it would work</h2>
<p>Under our system, a centralised authority, such as an education department, would use admission rules that assign students to schools based on specific policy goals, such as increasing diversity and enhancing student welfare.</p>
<p>Parents and children interested in attending a school other than their catchment school can apply to a central register and list their preferred schools. The register would include information about the student’s socio-economic status and diversity, as well as other potential qualifiers such as having a sibling at the school. </p>
<p>The system would identify the places available at the schools of choice and allocate these according to admission rules. Each student would be either matched with one of their preferred schools or their catchment school. This way, no student would be worse off by participating. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-inequality-in-australian-schools-make-them-less-socially-segregated-95034">To reduce inequality in Australian schools, make them less socially segregated</a>
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<p>This system would create a balanced (or near balanced) exchange so each school would receive the same (or similar) number of students it would send to others. This would ensure a school’s funding, which is based on student numbers, doesn’t drop.</p>
<h2>Other countries do this</h2>
<p>Public school systems give parents a greater say in other countries such as the UK and US. There are often up to <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/000282805774669637">four or five local schools</a> in a catchment area and families have the opportunity to enrol their kids across school districts. </p>
<p>More than 40 US states use <a href="http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/mbquest4e?rep=OE1705">inter-district school choice programs</a> that provide bussing between different districts. These successful programs ensure minority students have priority access to in-demand schools in higher socio-economic areas. </p>
<p>This system applies across <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/advances-in-economics-and-econometrics/what-really-matters-in-designing-school-choice-mechanisms/CE6FC4E2F65329C4C9D91C613329D131">many big cities in the US</a>. These include New York City (which began in 2003), Boston (2005), New Orleans (2012), Denver (2012), Washington DC (2013) and Newark (2014). New systems have also been developed in England, Amsterdam, a number of Asian cities and elsewhere. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/educational-disadvantage-is-a-huge-problem-in-australia-we-cant-just-carry-on-the-same-74530">Educational disadvantage is a huge problem in Australia – we can't just carry on the same</a>
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<p>The <a href="https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/acint/MDE074147">Achievement and Integration Program in Minnesota</a> compares the percentage of minority students in neighbouring districts. When a district and one of its adjoining districts have a difference of 20 percentage points or higher in the proportion of minority students, the district with the higher percentage is required to participate in the program.</p>
<p>Government policymakers in Australia should consider the potential to implement a fair, transparent and equitable school transfer system to increase school choice and provide better educational opportunities for disadvantaged students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Isa Hafalir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A team of researchers have developed a method in which Australian children can have access to schools outside their catchment area.Isa Hafalir, Professor, Economics, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1260112019-10-30T18:51:36Z2019-10-30T18:51:36ZChoosing a school for your kid? Here’s how other Australian parents do it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299157/original/file-20191029-183128-169n6mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Families are anxious when it comes to choosing the right school for their child.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>School choice is a defining feature of Australian education. One reason is because more families make choices between public and private schools than in other OECD countries. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=EAG_ENRL_SHARE_INST">2017</a>, 29.8% of Australian primary, and 40.6% secondary, students were enrolled in private schools, compared to OECD averages of 11.5% (primary) and 17.8% (secondary). </p>
<p>Choices also exist <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2016/03/31-4-jennifer-buckingham-trisha-jha.pdf">within school sectors</a>, such as selective or alternative government schools, or the variety of religious schools in the independent sector.</p>
<p>Recent research suggests a “<a href="https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/225639/doeke.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">generalised state of anxiety</a>” among families that not all schools can be trusted to deliver quality education. This is partly influenced by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/25/report-revealing-australias-educational-decline-a-real-worry-says-birmingham">media reports</a> raising alarm about Australia’s declining education standards. </p>
<p>So with all this choice, and anxiety, how do Australian families decide which school their kids will go to? While <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/media-releases/parents-primary-school-choice-about-more-academic-results">convenience and family reasons</a> play a large a part in decision-making at the household level, factors outside the household also influence families’ choices.</p>
<h2>School performance</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.myschool.edu.au/">MySchool website</a> was created to help families make better choices about schools by providing several aspects of school information, the main of which being data about how each school is performing in comparison to others. </p>
<p>School performance is shown using National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (<a href="https://www.nap.edu.au/">NAPLAN</a>) results. The theory <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/my-school-website-wont-lift-outcomes-for-all-schools/">behind MySchool</a> was that it would motivate schools to strive for better results to attract more families to enrol.</p>
<p>Yet a <a href="http://www.educationcouncil.edu.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/Reports%20and%20publications/NAPLAN%20Reporting%20Review/Final%20Report.pdf">recent government review</a> found most families aren’t using MySchool for its intended purpose. While 81% of parents agreed information about school performance should be publicly available, this didn’t play a strong part in their choice of a school – only 45% of parents had ever looked at the MySchool website. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-a-school-good-its-about-more-than-just-test-results-114372">What makes a school good? It's about more than just test results</a>
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<p>And 71% of teachers did not believe MySchool influenced families’ choices. The NAPLAN results <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/naplan-results-to-be-demoted-on-myschool-website-20191008-p52yls.html">will now feature</a> less prominently on the MySchool website, in light of the review’s findings.</p>
<p>School performance is <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/media-releases/parents-primary-school-choice-about-more-academic-results">still relevant to families’ decisions</a>, however. Parents who don’t use MySchool may use one of a <a href="https://www.goodschools.com.au/">growing</a> <a href="https://bettereducation.com.au/Default.aspx">number</a> of privately-operated websites to compare prospective schools. </p>
<p>While NAPLAN results may not be persuasive, school ATAR scores <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/should-school-rankings-matter">can impact on families’ decisions</a>, despite their limitations as a true measure of school performance. Media interest in secondary school results is intense, with The Age newspaper recently releasing its own online interactive <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/schools-that-excel-find-out-how-your-school-has-performed-20190322-p516jx.html">school comparison tool</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-a-school-good-its-about-more-than-just-test-results-114372">best measures of school performance</a> for families to use are those that capture the true value schools add to students’ learning. For example, the <a href="https://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/My_School_Student_Gain_Technical_Information.pdf">measures of student gain</a> on MySchool show how much difference schools are making to students’ learning over time, not just whether they achieve high scores.</p>
<h2>Social connections and location</h2>
<p><a href="https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/225639/doeke.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">Recent research</a> suggests Australian families choose schools in more complex ways than comparing their results. Choice of school is a strategic exercise, where parents figure out which curriculum subjects offer best advantage for university entry, or which school communities offer the best social connections. </p>
<p>Families with the right social networks are more likely to use “<a href="https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/225639/doeke.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">grapevine</a>” methods to choose a school. One teacher in the previously mentioned <a href="http://www.educationcouncil.edu.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/Reports%20and%20publications/NAPLAN%20Reporting%20Review/Final%20Report.pdf">government review</a> commented that social media beats MySchool “hands down” in shaping families’ decisions.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299162/original/file-20191029-183142-1yvk1pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299162/original/file-20191029-183142-1yvk1pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299162/original/file-20191029-183142-1yvk1pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299162/original/file-20191029-183142-1yvk1pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299162/original/file-20191029-183142-1yvk1pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299162/original/file-20191029-183142-1yvk1pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299162/original/file-20191029-183142-1yvk1pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299162/original/file-20191029-183142-1yvk1pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Families choose schools based on a number of factors including social connections and location.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>Location also matters in choosing a school, which is <a href="https://theconversation.com/location-matters-most-to-parents-when-choosing-a-public-school-41090">as much about the social mix of a particular area</a> as convenience. Moving into an area with desirable schools is the optimal strategy to gain both accessibility and social advantage. </p>
<p>Australian researchers have estimated house prices increase by <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/forward-planning/adding-value/subdivision-zoning/41208-how-do-school-zones-affect-melbourne-property-prices.html?start=1">nearly A$20,000</a> for every 1% increase in the proportion of top-ranked secondary students in local schools.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/location-matters-most-to-parents-when-choosing-a-public-school-41090">Location matters most to parents when choosing a public school</a>
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<h2>Schools selecting students</h2>
<p>Just as families can select schools, school can also select their students. A growing number of Australian families are opting to seek entry into selective entry government schools. </p>
<p>In NSW – which has more than <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/key-growth-area-sydney-to-get-a-new-selective-school-20190604-p51u8s.html">45 selective schools</a> – more than <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/selective-schools-must-promote-equity-and-inclusion-20180728-p4zu6k.html">14,000</a> year 6 students sat the 2018 entry test, competing for just over 4,000 available places.</p>
<p>There is a strong cultural dimension to this choice. Families from language backgrounds other than English <a href="https://cpd.org.au/2019/05/ethnic-divides-schooling-discussion-paper-may-2019/">constitute 83%</a> of enrolments in NSW selective schools.</p>
<p>As well as the academic environment, selective schools offer families a similar socio-economic mix to a private school, without the price tag. In Victoria and NSW, <a href="https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/225639/doeke.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">59.5% and 74.4%</a> of select-entry school students, respectively, come from the wealthiest quarter of families in the state. </p>
<p>Despite their growing popularity, selective entry schools can incur other costs, such as long commutes (up to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-sydney-students-travelling-phenomenal-distances-to-get-to-school-every-day-20180403-p4z7lo.html">100 kilometres per day</a>), and the stress of entrance tests. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/selective-schools-mainly-select-advantage-so-another-one-wont-ease-sydneys-growing-pains-118449">Selective schools mainly 'select' advantage, so another one won't ease Sydney's growing pains</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.impact.acu.edu.au/community/are-selective-schools-good-or-bad-for-our-kids">ANU research</a> has found greater selectivity in education can lower a country’s overall academic performance, and distort students’ concept of their learning ability. This suggests that the choices individual families make to get the best education for their children may have costs for the education system as a whole.</p>
<h2>Not all choices (or choosers) are equal</h2>
<p>Many Australian families don’t have the opportunity to exercise choice in selecting a school for their child. A <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/the-myth-of-markets-in-school-education/">2013 Grattan Institute report</a> found around half of Australian schools had little competition from neighbouring schools, and were essentially the only available local choice.</p>
<p>Even where school options exist, many families cannot act on their preferences due to limited financial, social or academic resources. These families must make their decisions by default, accessing whichever schools are available <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/what-is-to-be-done-about-australian-schooling/">once more advantaged families have exercised their choices</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=columnists">world’s top-performing education systems</a> are those that balance families’ drive to make the best possible choices, with adequate support for those whose access to school choice (and its benefits) is most constrained.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126011/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jen Jackson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australian parents rely on a number of factors to choose a school for their child. These include school performance, location and social connections.Jen Jackson, Education Policy Lead, Mitchell Institute, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1241412019-09-27T14:43:45Z2019-09-27T14:43:45ZWould abolishing private schools really make a difference to equality?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294540/original/file-20190927-185375-llkcyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=112%2C28%2C6134%2C4139&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pupils-computer-class-teacher-480125899">Shutterstock/SpeedKingz</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For some, the British private school system evokes images of rolling playing fields and academic excellence that can pave the way to an elite university education and a prosperous life. For others it simply cements societal injustice and inter-generational inequality.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the UK’s Labour party is now in the latter camp. And at its recent national conference it endorsed a series of measures that would effectively see <a href="https://theconversation.com/abolishing-private-schools-is-admirable-but-wont-make-choosing-a-state-one-any-easier-for-parents-124111">private education abolished</a>.</p>
<p>The proposal would see endowments – or recurrent income from past benefactors – of wealthy private schools “nationalised”. The money would then be used to help subsidise the integration of private schools into the state-funded system. </p>
<p>Creating one system of schools for all would have many potential benefits. For a start it might mean that more high attaining pupils, currently in private schools, would be role models for a wider range of fellow pupils. It might also help to improve social cohesion and foster understanding by creating <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/education-policy">a better mix of young citizens</a> who will work together in the future. </p>
<p>The better-off parents currently using private schools could add their support to the operation and improvement of their local state schools. And it would enable a large number of issues to be standardised – such as teacher qualifications, provision of extracurricular activities, access to sporting facilities and safeguarding. </p>
<p>Some commentators, though, <a href="https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/its-absolutely-insane-212917/">claim the idea is rooted in envy</a> and will damage something valuable and traditional in education. Others have said it is not feasible – that <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d93922e6-dde8-11e9-b112-9624ec9edc59">the costs would be too great</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7496721/Eton-headmaster-SIMON-HENDERSON-slams-Labours-plan-abolish-private-schools.html">Critics have also pointed</a> out that <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f0e7b158-deb7-11e9-b112-9624ec9edc59">private schools already offer free</a> and assisted places to a small number of disadvantaged pupils – or open their facilities for use by nearby state schools. And others have <a href="https://theconversation.com/get-rid-of-private-schools-wed-be-better-tackling-inequalities-between-state-schools-121805">proposed more modest changes</a> such as ending the charitable status and tax exemption of many of the richer schools. </p>
<h2>Are private schools better?</h2>
<p>Private schools come in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0013189X030007018">all shapes and sizes</a>. Many are small, with few facilities and these are often accommodated in converted residential accommodation. Quite a few are religious. And some buy in (often from the US) their own curriculum and teaching materials. </p>
<p>In general, these schools don’t take very privileged children, and do not produce notably high attainment results. Quite a large number are special schools, or even hospitals – taking in young people with some of the severest learning or physical challenges.</p>
<p>That said, the majority of privately educated pupils attend larger, more established and popularly successful schools – though <a href="https://mailchi.mp/a7aa2d643ebe/abolisheton">few of these are like Eton</a>. Most are coeducational, non-selective, day schools, with somewhat smaller class sizes than in the state sector, but otherwise not very remarkable. </p>
<h2>Top results?</h2>
<p>A number of private schools have among some of <a href="https://ukguardianship.com/best-independent-schools-in-the-uk-gcse-league-table-2018/">the highest exam results</a> in the country. Though this is not entirely surprising as not only do private schools have better facilities and smaller classroom sizes, but the state sector also has special schools and pupil referral units making up a proportion of its exam grades. </p>
<p>Indeed, more than 20 years of educational research shows that the results of any school are <a href="https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/Do_parental_involvement_interventions_increase_attainment1.pdf">largely determined</a> by the nature of their pupil intake. That is to say, grammar schools do not produce better results, they simply <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2018.1443432">select the most pupils who are already achieving higher levels academically</a>. Schools in the north of England are not worse than those in the south, they simply have <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244018825171">more long-term disadvantaged pupils</a>. </p>
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<p>Across the state sector, any difference in results can be explained by the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244018825171">prior attainment and challenges that pupil’s face</a>. And although the data is less complete for private schools, <a href="https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/J05587-BERA-RI-140-Interactive-02.pdf">there is no reason to expect anything different</a>.</p>
<h2>Reform the state sector</h2>
<p>So if private schools are no better for pupils, perhaps abolishing them would make no difference either way. It would not create a crisis of attainment, but neither would it enhance equality – as the same privileged pupils will still have high attainment at state schools. And those pupils will still dominate subsequent opportunities based on having higher grades. </p>
<p>Some richer parents might also opt for home education, paying for tuition, and banding together to fund extra-curricular activities. The result would be the same as now. Indicating that schools themselves may not really be the issue. </p>
<p>Perhaps then it would be better to address the sharp inequalities in school access in the state system and move towards a position where there isn’t an incentive to spend money on private education. But for this to happen laws and procedures for all schools would need to be equalised. </p>
<p>Private schools would need to be made more transparent, provide more data and be required to use qualified teachers. At the same time faith-based, grammars and all other “diverse” kinds of schools should be phased out – and one school format decided upon.</p>
<p>Above all, successive administrations and secretaries of education need to <a href="https://theconversation.com/abolishing-private-schools-is-admirable-but-wont-make-choosing-a-state-one-any-easier-for-parents-124111">stop creating or expanding new types</a> of state schools – and instead use the clear evidence which shows that the tax-payer funded, SAT-tested, Ofsted-inspected schools are <a href="https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/Do_parental_involvement_interventions_increase_attainment1.pdf">all about as good as each other</a>. And that paying for a private school simply to get an advantage in terms of exam results is a waste of money.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Gorard was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council to investigate school intakes and outcomes</span></em></p>There’s no evidence that private schools produce better results than state schools for equivalent pupils.Stephen Gorard, Professor of Education and Public Policy, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1241112019-09-26T11:12:44Z2019-09-26T11:12:44ZAbolishing private schools is admirable, but won’t make choosing a state one any easier for parents<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294346/original/file-20190926-51434-jdmdua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=90%2C0%2C3935%2C2685&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/etonian-schoolboys-english-independent-boarding-school-1174007794?src=gsQnkNVbQ4elEAK3BQOSTA-1-0">Shutterstock/Bell Photography 423</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Labour has voted on plans to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-49798861">abolish private schools</a> by removing their charitable status and redistributing their wealth to the state sector.
At the <a href="https://theconversation.com/labour-party-conference-what-to-expect-as-party-debates-its-brexit-position-and-election-plan-123933">party’s conference</a> delegates approved a motion for this to be included in the party’s next general election manifesto.</p>
<p>The idea behind the move is that it will ensure every child gets the best education and start in life – helping to end inequality in the British school system. A system where the prospect of doing well is still significantly <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-britains-private-schools-are-such-a-social-problem-111369">shaped by a student’s socioeconomic background</a>. But the motion has not been taken well by private schools, which have <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/23/private-schools-threaten-sue-labour-plans-abolish/">threatened to sue Labour</a> over plans to abolish them.</p>
<h2>The problem with private schools</h2>
<p>Private schooling has inequality as a founding premise – with entry almost entirely dependent on the ability of parents to pay. Private schools perpetuate inequalities and maintain privilege. This can be seen in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/private-school-and-an-oxbridge-degree-remain-the-currency-of-british-politics-37189">over-representation of privately educated people</a> in better universities, and in key professional careers that shape society – such as journalism, law, politics and finance. </p>
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<p>This dominance is achieved not only through the educational outcomes produced by the schools in terms of qualifications but also through what sociologists regard as the <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/newsarchive/creating-cultural-capital/">social and cultural capital</a> that can be gained in private schools. In this way, attending a private school gives students a ready-made network of similarly advantaged friends to help them in the future. </p>
<p>And pupils will also have learned ways of “being” and interacting, which can help ease the way through interviews for university, professional training and jobs. The <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/every-woman-should-part-old-girls-network/">“old boys” or “old girls” networks</a> thrive on a sense of entitlement, belonging and common cultural references.</p>
<h2>A question of choice</h2>
<p>In the meantime, the state schooling system has also become permeated by choice – a concept that was formalised by Margaret Thatcher in the <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/timeline.html">1980 Education Act</a> – and has remained key in education ever since. </p>
<p>The logic of the market and choice has led to a rapid increase of different types of state schools – including grammar schools, religious schools, academies and free schools. Meaning that parents – and occasionally young people – are increasingly seen as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0965975940020102">consumers of educational options</a>. </p>
<p>So rather than ideas of social welfare, there is a “parentocracy” made up of individual consumers. This is at odds with an education system <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230224018">that aims to reduce inequality</a> and provide good outcomes for children regardless of their family background. </p>
<h2>Impact on parents</h2>
<p>This concept of “choice” has led to secondary schools becoming larger and fewer in number – with government policy producing not more schools but an increase in different types of schools. And for parents, this had made choices at once more limited, but also more complicated. </p>
<p>Navigating the complex terrain of different kinds of schools with different entry policies has become a key part of being a “good” and “effective” parent. <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/11/why-are-the-middle-classes-so-obsessed-with-schools/">Media coverage</a>, and much <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30036294?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">academic literature</a>, might suggest that concern about this is a particularly <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2304/eerj.2008.7.2.176">middle-class anxiety</a>. But in an <a href="https://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719091155/">in-depth study</a> conducted in three areas of Manchester with different social-economic and ethnic profiles, I found that many parents are deeply ambivalent about the process of choosing schools. </p>
<p>Indeed, I found that at all parts of the economic spectrum parents are concerned and sometimes deeply anxious about making the right choices for their children. The study found that for parents, emphasis on choice can produce feelings of inadequacy. Both in terms of feeling there aren’t enough acceptable choices available, and in feeling that if there is only one school to (in practice) choose from, something is wrong – as no choice is being made. </p>
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<span class="caption">The world-famous Eton College.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/windsor-england-26-may-2017-architecture-1006187545?src=gsQnkNVbQ4elEAK3BQOSTA-1-2">Shutterstock/Kurt Pacaud</a></span>
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<p>For most of the people I spoke to, the option of attending a private school was a financial impossibility. And for many it was something they were also politically or morally opposed to. Many of the parents in my study assumed that a private education would be a better education. But many also felt their children would suffer in an alien social and cultural environment – where they would be made to feel economically disadvantaged. </p>
<p>I suspect then that many of the parents in my study would welcome the Labour Party proposal to abolish or withdraw state support for private schools – and would feel that it makes the education system more just. </p>
<p>That said, others might feel that it goes against the idea of choice – which has become so deeply embedded in the education system. That is to say even though such a choice is not available to most parents, the idea that – on an aspirational level at least – it is still an option may still be an important factor for some parents and pupils. So it may well be that Labour would have their work cut out to convince all parents that abolishing private schools really is a step in the right direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124111/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bridget Byrne receives funding from the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council). </span></em></p>Over the past few decades secondary schools have become larger and fewer in number. For parents, this had made choices at once more limited, but also more complicated.Bridget Byrne, Professor of Sociology, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1216162019-09-25T20:42:36Z2019-09-25T20:42:36ZFive charts on Catholic school enrolments: they’re trending down while Australia’s population booms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293718/original/file-20190924-54775-ghthn3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C633%2C2986%2C1297&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Catholic secondary schools experienced significant growth prior to 2015, but since then, enrolments have stagnated.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent months, one of Victoria’s oldest Catholic girls’ schools, Presentation College, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-30/presentation-college-windsor-catholic-girls-school-to-close/11364188">announced it was closing</a> down, citing falling enrolments. Other <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-south/st-bedes-college-mentone-and-st-james-college-east-bentleigh-to-merge-in-2021/news-story/e5004f9cbc3251bb1c5a2f503fe34619">Catholic schools</a> have decided to merge together, some also pointing to dwindling enrolments.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Australia is in the midst of a population boom with new schools being built and <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4221.0Main+Features12018?OpenDocument">overall enrolment numbers</a> on the rise. So, are enrolments in Catholic schools going down across the country, and if so, why?</p>
<h2>Enrolment numbers over the last decade</h2>
<p>School enrolments across Australia are, overall, trending upwards. Our calculations show <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia-data-portal">enrolments increased</a> by nearly 12% from 2009-2018, representing around 409,000 extra students across all schools. If the current trend continues, four million students will be studying in Australian schools by 2022. </p>
<p>The trends show government and independent schools are becoming more popular than Catholic schools.</p>
<p>As the graph below shows, government primary school enrolments steadily increased until 2014. There was a fall in 2015, but then the numbers kept climbing. Government secondary school enrolments showed no similar lull, steadily increasing over the last four years. </p>
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<p>The trend for independent schools was similar to that of government schools. The only difference is that independent schools generally have higher enrolments in secondary schools than in primary, as parents are more likely to make the choice to transition to an independent school in the secondary years.</p>
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<p>Catholic primary school enrolments increased until 2014, then dropped slightly in 2015, like the government and independent school enrolments. However, Catholic primary enrolments didn’t recover and have remained reasonably stagnant since 2015.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-why-catholic-primary-school-parents-can-afford-to-pay-more-102643">Three charts on: why Catholic primary school parents can afford to pay more</a>
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<p>Catholic secondary schools have been on a slight <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia-data-porta">downward trajectory</a> from 2016, with a loss of 1,798 students in the last two years.</p>
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<p>The difference in primary and secondary student enrolments from 2014-2015, in part, reflects <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4221.0Explanatory%20Notes12015?OpenDocument">changing definitions</a> of primary and secondary students in Western Australia and Queensland. The trend is mirrored in secondary schools where enrolments went up between the two years.</p>
<h2>Enrolments increasing, but slower for Catholic schools</h2>
<p>Government schools <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia-data-portal">saw enrolments grow</a> by 11% between 2009 and 2018 – an increase of around 260,000 students. Independent school enrolments grew by around 17% (84,600 new students) while Catholic school enrolments grew by only 8%, which accounted for around 61,000 new students.</p>
<p>As a share of the total enrolment growth, government schools accounted for around 64%, Catholic schools for 15% and independent schools 21%. </p>
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<p>Government schools experienced significant growth from 2011. There was a decrease in extra student numbers between 2017 and 18, but the overall trend is up. Independent schools have maintained similar enrolment levels with a noticeable increase in enrolments over the last two years. But Catholic school enrolment growth steadily decreased each year since 2013.</p>
<p>In 2017 and 2018, Australian Catholic schools had a net decrease of 180 and 1,135 students respectively. Victoria and Queensland are the only jurisdictions that have experienced increases over the same period, with 839 and 1,153 additional enrolments respectively.</p>
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<h2>Why is this happening?</h2>
<p>So, what’s driving the overall downturn in Catholic school enrolments? There has been <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/enrolments-in-catholic-schools-fall-as-independent-schools-grow-20190308-p512ud.html">some speculation</a>, such as from the NSW Teachers Federation, it may be due to fallout from the <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/">Royal Commission into child sex abuse</a> (which ran from 2013 until the final report’s release in December, 2017).</p>
<p>But the data also indicate enrolment patterns may be driven by broader demographic and social trends. New migrants may be partly responsible. Over the last ten years Australia has experienced a <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3412.0Main+Features12017-18?OpenDocument">net overseas migration</a> of more than two million people. </p>
<p>Analysis of <a href="http://isca.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-changing-face-of-Australian-schooling_FINAL_web.pdf">census data shows</a> students who arrive in Australia in the three years before the census date are most likely to go to a government school. In 2016, 77% of these students attended a government school.</p>
<p>Fewer of these students attend Catholic schools, with enrolments dropping from 12% in 2011, to 9% in 2016 among migrant groups. Migrant enrolments in independent schools have remained steady over those five years.</p>
<p>For many parents, the decision about which school their children will attend can be complex and dependent on many factors. Most of the <a href="https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/225639">research on school choice</a> shows families typically exercise this choice at the secondary school level.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-im-choosing-the-local-state-school-even-though-it-doesnt-have-all-the-bells-and-whistles-48154">Why I'm choosing the local state school – even though it doesn't have all the bells and whistles</a>
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<p>The key factors influencing parents when choosing a particular government primary school is the convenience of its location and whether other family members are at the school. </p>
<p><a href="https://aifs.gov.au/media-releases/parents-primary-school-choice-about-more-academic-results">Research</a> on school choice shows parents of children attending an independent school most frequently referred to academic results as the motivating factor behind their decision to send their child there. For Catholic schools, it was the religious values. </p>
<p>More Australian families are identifying as having “no religion”. Since 2006, students in the “no religion” category have increased, and those with a Catholic affiliation have decreased, <a href="http://isca.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-changing-face-of-Australian-schooling_FINAL_web.pdf">from 30% to 27% respectively</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-australia-becomes-less-religious-our-parliament-becomes-more-so-80456">As Australia becomes less religious, our parliament becomes more so</a>
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<p>Of course, many families choose schools based on financial considerations. Recent analysis by the ANZ shows mid-tier private schools (which charge between A$10,000 and A$20,000 a year in tuition fees) <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/private-school-enrolments-slump-as-parents-feel-economic-pinch-20190914-p52rba.html">saw a drop in enrolments</a> in 2017 and 2018. </p>
<p>These families may be opting for so-called “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-lesson-in-location-20090530-gdtk7o.html">magnet schools</a>” which are high performing government schools where parents move to the catchment area to increase their chances of admission. This shows parents make strategic choices within school sectors as well as between them. </p>
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<p><em>Note: Data was sourced from the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4221.0">ABS</a> and <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia-data-portal">ACARA</a> and may not correspond with annual data released by school system authorities. However the overall trends are the same.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121616/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zoran Endekov does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia is in the midst of a population boom. But Catholic school enrolments have been decreasing since 2013.Zoran Endekov, Education Policy Fellow, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1173702019-06-07T12:59:50Z2019-06-07T12:59:50ZSchool vouchers expand despite evidence of negative effects<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277465/original/file-20190601-69071-1qyi2gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center, signs a bill that creates a new voucher program for thousands of students to attend private schools using taxpayer dollars.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Florida-Vouchers/4da58066057e460abfcd2219144bb557/1/0">Lynne Sladky/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the past couple of decades, proponents of vouchers for private schools have been pushing the idea that vouchers <a href="https://www.mackinac.org/FMM1999-40">work</a>.</p>
<p>They assert there is a <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/the-surprising-consensus-on-school-choice">consensus</a> among researchers that voucher programs lead to <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/school-vouchers-raise-african-american-test-scores">learning gains</a> for students – in some cases bigger gains than with other reforms and approaches, such as <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/vouchers-and-test-scores">class-size reduction</a>.</p>
<p>They have <a href="https://jaypgreene.com/2008/08/21/voucher-effects-on-participants/">highlighted</a> studies that show the <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/school-vouchers-in-dc-produce-gains-in-both-test-scores-and-graduation-rates/">positive impact</a> of vouchers on <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/school-vouchers-raise-african-american-test-scores">various populations</a>. At the very least, they argue, vouchers <a href="https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/voucher-challenge-2426.html">do no harm</a>.</p>
<p>As researchers who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KLVtdQYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">school choice</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jcvEv4AAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education policy</a>, we see a new consensus emerging — including in pro-voucher advocates’ own studies — that vouchers are having mostly <a href="http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/LSP4-Policy-Brief-SCDP.pdf">no effects or negative effects</a> on student learning. As a result, we see a shift in how voucher proponents are redefining what voucher success represents. They are using a new set of non-academic gains that were not the primary argument to promote vouchers.</p>
<p>How success is defined is particularly important now in light of the fact that <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/EqualEd/2019/0510/In-Florida-vouchers-win-ground-but-courts-may-have-ultimate-say">Florida</a> and <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/05/24/tennessee-governor-signs-school-voucher-bill_ap.html">Tennessee</a> – which are both <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/State_government_trifectas#Trifecta_status_by_state">controlled by Republicans</a> – have created new publicly funded voucher programs in May 2019. </p>
<p>In April, <a href="http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/LSP4-Policy-Brief-SCDP.pdf">a large-scale study</a> — conducted by <a href="https://www.federationforchildren.org/fuller-wolf-discuss-vouchers/">voucher advocates</a> — found substantial <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2019/04/23/do-voucher-scores-bounce-back-new-research-says-no/">negative impacts</a> for students using vouchers to attend private schools.</p>
<p>Certainly, other studies show a different kind of positive effect on the likelihood of a student <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/effects-florida-tax-credit-scholarship-program-college-enrollment-and-graduation">enrolling and persisting in college</a>. Other studies also show that vouchers have <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20174022/pdf/20174022.pdf">positive effects on perceptions of school safety</a>, and on <a href="https://news.uark.edu/articles/46318/researchers-report-link-between-school-voucher-program-and-reduced-crime-paternity-disputes">avoidance of crime</a> and <a href="https://news.uark.edu/articles/46318/researchers-report-link-between-school-voucher-program-and-reduced-crime-paternity-disputes">out-of-wedlock births</a>. But these goals were not what was used to advance vouchers.</p>
<h2>Vouchers being pursued politically</h2>
<p>In addition to states, Republicans are pursuing vouchers at the federal level as well. For instance, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos – along with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and eight of his fellow Republican senators – are pushing for a voucher-like plan to establish what they refer to as <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/trump-administration-unveils-plan-historic-investment-americas-students-through-education-freedom-scholarships">Education Freedom Scholarships</a>. The US$5 billion proposal would enable individual taxpayers and businesses to get dollar-for-dollar tax credits for contributions to “scholarship” organizations. Those organizations would then pass the money to families to use for private schools or other education related expenses for their children.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277467/original/file-20190601-69071-i9zt6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277467/original/file-20190601-69071-i9zt6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277467/original/file-20190601-69071-i9zt6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277467/original/file-20190601-69071-i9zt6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277467/original/file-20190601-69071-i9zt6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277467/original/file-20190601-69071-i9zt6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277467/original/file-20190601-69071-i9zt6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277467/original/file-20190601-69071-i9zt6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos talks with students in Nashville, Tenn., in April, as lawmakers voted to expand school vouchers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/DeVos-Tennessee/46a62ee95f464c8f8828d9c79e43f5e3/2/0">Mark Humphrey/AP</a></span>
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<p>There is a largely partisan divide in Congress concerning the District of Columbia school voucher program – a <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairmen-norton-request-documents-from-secretary-devos-on-dc-school-voucher">federally funded school voucher program</a> created <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/howvoucherscametodc/">under President George W. Bush</a>.</p>
<p>The program, which is authorized under the Scholarships for Opportunities and Results Act, has gotten more than <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/2019-03-29.EEC%20Scott%20Norton%20to%20DeVos-DoEd%20re%20SOAR%20Act.pdf">$200 million from Congress and served more than 10,000 children</a> since it began in 2004. It is set to expire in September.</p>
<p>House Democrats are <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/2019-03-29.EEC%20Scott%20Norton%20to%20DeVos-DoEd%20re%20SOAR%20Act.pdf">looking for problems</a> with the D.C. voucher program. In response, Republicans are <a href="https://republicans-oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2019-05-30-JDJ-MM-to-DeVos-Dept.-of-Ed-re-SOAR-Act.pdf">seeking additional information</a> to back up the Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.ncpecoalition.org/trump-voucher-plan">proposal to double its funding</a>, from $15 million to $30 million, even though a <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20174022/">2017 evaluation</a> of the program showed “<a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20174022/">negative impacts on student achievement</a>.”</p>
<h2>The voucher advocacy movement</h2>
<p>Given all the political interest in vouchers, it pays to revisit how there came to be such as disconnect between what the research shows about the negative impacts of vouchers and their popularity with policymakers.</p>
<p>Starting in the early 1990s, a <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1090254">voucher-advocacy movement</a> emerged to promote the idea that vouchers help students learn. Funded largely by pro-voucher philanthropies such as the <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/walton-family-foundation-pledges-6-million-for-private-school-vouchers">Walton Family Foundation</a>, <a href="https://www.heritage.org/education/report/expanding-education-choices-vouchers-and-tax-credits-savings-accounts">think tanks</a>, such as Cato Institute and The Heritage Foundation, and advocacy <a href="https://ij.org/report/bulletproofing-school-choice/">organizations</a>, such as EdChoice, made concerted efforts to promote <a href="https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/school-choice-myths-and-realities-2nd-PRINTING-FINAL.pdf">proof</a> of the <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/research/the-abcs-of-school-choice/">effectiveness</a> of vouchers. The proof came in the form of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0895904808328532">a small set of studies</a> of voucher programs for poor children in a select set of cities. The studies were conducted by a <a href="https://static.newamerica.org/attachments/10118-market-forces/PetersonDots.d9ec33ad83b24dd0bd0560d9dfb2b636.pdf">group</a> of pro-voucher scholars often funded by those same philanthropies.</p>
<p>For example, a Harvard center funded by <a href="https://sites.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/sponsors_affiliates.htm">pro-voucher organizations</a>, disputed the official state evaluations of voucher programs in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0013124599031002005">Milwaukee</a> and <a href="https://sites.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/PDF/Papers/newclvex.pdf">Cleveland</a> to argue that there were small but discernible achievement gains for voucher students.</p>
<p>More recently, teams from the University of Arkansas have been <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemcshane/2019/05/30/education-reformers-our-work-here-is-done/">claiming</a> that their studies show that vouchers almost always lead to learning <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/coreydeangelis/2018/01/30/untitled-n2441717">gains</a> for at least some students, do little if any <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/coreydeangelis/2018/01/30/untitled-n2441717">harm</a> to students, and provide all sorts of <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/private-school-choice-helps-students-avoid-prison-unplanned-pregnancies/">other benefits</a>. Among other things, they say that vouchers <a href="https://news.uark.edu/articles/46318/researchers-report-link-between-school-voucher-program-and-reduced-crime-paternity-disputes">reduce crime</a> and lead parents to become <a href="https://news.uark.edu/articles/24938/new-book-describes-how-school-vouchers-empowered-urban-families">more involved in civic life</a>. The media then <a href="https://www.albanyherald.com/news/cal-thomas-the-abc-s-of-school-choice/article_0da91e01-dba1-5e7d-9578-224d6419cea1.html">pick up these studies</a>.</p>
<p>But the latest research about vouchers calls into question the original, primary claims about their effectiveness.</p>
<h2>New evidence emerges</h2>
<p>Rigorous research on state-wide programs in <a href="https://edex.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/publication/pdfs/FORDHAM%20Ed%20Choice%20Evaluation%20Report_online%20edition.pdf">Ohio</a>, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pam.22086">Indiana</a> and <a href="http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/LSP4-Policy-Brief-SCDP.pdf">Louisiana</a>, as well as in <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20184010/pdf/20184010.pdf">Washington, D.C.</a>, shows large, negative impacts on academic achievement of students using vouchers compared to their peers who stayed in public schools. </p>
<p>Initial <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/06/26/533192616/school-vouchers-get-a-new-report-card?t=1559252451019">hopes</a> by some researchers and voucher advocates that these <a href="https://www.catholicleague.org/wall-street-journal-scores-on-school-choice/">losses would disappear</a> over time have <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2019/04/23/do-voucher-scores-bounce-back-new-research-says-no/">evaporated</a> as more recent follow-up studies show that the harm is <a href="http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/LSP4-Policy-Brief-SCDP.pdf">significant and sustained</a>.</p>
<p>Now that there is evidence that vouchers harm student learning, voucher advocates have changed their argument. They say <a href="http://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Do-Impacts-on-Test-Scores-Even-Matter.pdf">test scores</a> are not that important. Instead, they say policymakers should focus on other measures such as “attainment,” which entails things like the rate at which voucher students <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/04/24/louisiana-vouchers-have-led-to-big-drops-in-test-scores-but-they-also-might-boost-college-enrollment/">enroll in college</a>.</p>
<p>However, some of the most recent research finds that vouchers <a href="http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/Erickson-Mills-Wolf-LSP-Attainment_041719-final.pdf">don’t really lead to better college enrollment</a>, either.</p>
<h2>Bad choices</h2>
<p>While some advocates downplay the importance of test scores, others, such as <a href="https://www.hoosiertimes.com/herald_times_online/news/local/lighthouse-christian-academy-responds-to-concerns-over-its-admissions-policy/article_0677fbb4-93b8-5346-ac21-59aa56ce1285.html">DeVos</a> make the argument that vouchers are worthy simply because they give students and families expanded choice.</p>
<p>We believe student learning, the original reason vouchers were promoted, should remain the measure of success. While imperfect, few measures are as readily available to policymakers as test scores in evaluating education reforms. Moreover, advocates should be accountable for the <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/does-school-choice-work">results they said would occur</a> regarding learning gains. But instead, it appears they want to “<a href="https://nepc.info/newsletter/2018/05/review-goalposts">move the goalposts</a>” they themselves had set up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research over the past few years has shown vouchers for private schools set back student learning. So why are advocates still pushing so hard to expand them?Christopher Lubienski, Professor, Indiana UniversityJoel R Malin, Assistant Professor, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1080182018-12-03T11:37:21Z2018-12-03T11:37:21ZGeorge H.W. Bush laid the foundation for education reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248483/original/file-20181203-194932-1ri33m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President George H.W. Bush in 1990.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/washington-dc-usa-1990-president-george-718857319?src=M0-3E8Z8HAlcSliupLb0VQ-1-1">Mark Reinstein/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>George H.W. Bush fulfilled his desire – articulated late in his 1988 campaign for president – to be <a href="https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/negp/reports/negp30.pdf">“the education president</a>.” It just took three decades.</p>
<p>It’s true that Bush passed no education bills during his one term as president.</p>
<p>His next three successors, by contrast, all produced signature education legislation: <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/legislation/GOALS2000/TheAct/index.html">Goals 2000</a> for Bill Clinton, <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml">No Child Left Behind</a> for George W. Bush and both <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html">Race to the Top</a> and the <a href="https://www.ed.gov/essa">Every Student Succeeds Act</a> for Barack Obama. All, however, followed a plan drawn up by George H.W. Bush. He was – in my view as an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=d-pest4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education historian</a> – the architect of sweeping change.</p>
<p>The cornerstone of the Bush education blueprint was an elite bipartisan consensus. Like his predecessor in the White House – Ronald Reagan – Bush was sympathetic to the free market. But unlike Reagan, Bush was a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/taxanalysts/2014/05/16/george-h-w-bushs-profile-in-pragmatism/#3516f4181a3d">pragmatist</a>, and as vice president had watched Reagan fail in his push for tuition vouchers. But Bush was also a consummate Washington insider, less intent on dismantling government than on improving it. In the long wake of the alarmist <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html">A Nation at Risk</a> report, which suggested that American students were falling behind their international peers, Bush offered a new vision for federal involvement in education. Rather than choosing between the unregulated market and the heavy hand of government to fix schools, Bush offered a third way, <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?22949-1/america-2000-education-initiatives">making the case</a> that entrepreneurial activity in education should be encouraged and carefully monitored by the state. That vision, which shaped an entire generation of education reformers, remains the foundation of an enduring consensus among liberals and conservatives alike.</p>
<h2>Federal government as catalyst</h2>
<p>Beyond establishing a vision, Bush threw his energies into school reform projects large and small. In keeping with his belief that the federal government could <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PPP-1991-book1/html/PPP-1991-book1-doc-pg395-2.htm">“serve as a catalyst”</a> in promoting change, he was an early advocate for charter schools, which he successfully <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED327985.pdf">framed</a> as a bipartisan marriage of entrepreneurism and government, and which he pitched not as devices of the free market, but as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/28/opinion/school-choice-without-harm.html">an experimentation</a> against inequality. Through the <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/npo-spotlight/new-american-schools">New American Schools Development Corporation</a>, for instance, Bush funded the Community Learning Centers of Minnesota project – the first endeavor <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED371513.pdf">“based on the charter school concept, a variation of the school choice approach</a>.” In so doing, he created a model that would be replicated a thousand times over.</p>
<p>Perhaps most significantly, Bush laid the foundation for <a href="https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/negp/reports/negp30.pdf">standards-based accountability</a>. Before he took office, the federal government had little involvement in the governance of public schools. President Lyndon Johnson had increased Washington’s reach through the <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/the-nations-main-k-12-law-a-timeline.html">Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965</a>, which channeled vast new sums to schools. But Johnson and his successors – including Jimmy Carter, who <a href="https://education.laws.com/department-of-education">elevated</a> the Department of Education to the Cabinet – had done little to position the federal government as a kind of executive suite in public education. Bush changed that, and sought to do so by developing top-down accountability through curricular standards and aligned tests.</p>
<p>Less than a year after taking office, the Bush administration worked with the National Governors’ Association to organize the <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/09/24/05summit.h34.html">1989 Charlottesville education summit</a> – a meeting at which then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton distinguished himself as an ally. A few short months later, in his <a href="https://www.infoplease.com/homework-help/us-documents/state-union-address-george-hw-bush-january-31-1990">1990 State of the Union address</a>, Bush proposed his <a href="http://www.capenet.org/pdf/Outlook171.pdf">America 2000</a> legislation, which called for standardized tests that would “tell parents and educators, politicians, and employers just how well our schools are doing.”</p>
<h2>Enduring influence</h2>
<p>At the time he was defeated in his bid for reelection, Bush had little to show for his plans. The charter sector in the early 1990s remained minuscule. Congress sank America 2000 shortly after it was proposed.</p>
<p>Over time, however, Bush’s grand design was gradually realized. Rechristening Bush’s failed America 2000 legislation as Goals 2000, Bill Clinton gave incentives to states to create curricular standards and aligned tests, and he doled out millions of dollars in grants to charter school developers. George W. Bush advanced his father’s work through No Child Left Behind, as well as through strong support for the charter sector, which doubled in size under his administration. Barack Obama offered continued support to the charter sector, while also ensuring the future of accountability testing through <a href="https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn">Every Student Succeeds Act</a>. In short, the Bush paradigm has had remarkable endurance across time and across different administrations.</p>
<p>This is not to say that federal policy has had a positive effect on schools over the past quarter-century. No Child Left Behind is today viewed by policy experts, educators and even many of its original backers as a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pam.21978">failure</a>. And charter schools, despite receiving generally positive press, have produced <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112340">mixed results</a> while largely <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/08/24/we-must-diversify-charter-school-options.html">failing to produce real innovation</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the endurance of these efforts reveals Bush’s particular genius for working within complex democratic bureaucracies to build lasting power. The Department of Education, once a sleepy backwater, today exercises tremendous influence. And in wielding that influence, Bush’s successors – both Republicans and Democrats – have also advanced his administrative agenda. Phrases like “standards and accountability” and “school choice,” once deployed only by policy wonks, are now common terms in the national education dialogue.</p>
<p>George H.W. Bush’s ideas persisted well after he left office. That’s because they were rooted in compromise between elites on both sides of the aisle and because they were patiently developed through bureaucratic institutions and the law. For good or ill, it seems, true power lies not in the issuance of ideological proclamations or executive orders – it lies in statecraft. Leaders, after all, may come and go. But their policies can continue to shape the world long after they leave office.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Schneider does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Though his education initiative staggered while he was in office, the late former President George H.W. Bush had an influence that continues to shape education policy, an education historian says.Jack Schneider, Assistant Professor of Education, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.