Education researchers and political scientists have long raised theoretical objections to market-based reforms like school choice on the grounds that these policies may undermine public participation in democratic politics and erode public support for public institutions like schools. Little work, however, has empirically tested this claim.…

This article explores from a broadly philosophical perspective a range of complexities of normative judgment relating to "school choice" in a liberal democratic society. It is argued that "heavy" conceptions of public education in such societies play an important role in philosophical discussions of school choice by indicating…