This book examines the impact of school vouchers and charter schools on three urban school districts, exploring the causes of behaviors observed and explaining how the structure of competition will likely shape the future of public education. The book draws on case studies from three districts at the center of the school choice debate: Milwaukee,…

Argues that U.S. schools are much better than they used to be. Lower SAT scores are because of more minorities taking test, and minorities have historically scored lower. More people are receiving an education than ever before. Contends that school choice is simplistic response to education problems, and solution is collaborative intervention by…

Presents preliminary observations on how allowing some parents in Michigan to choose which schools their children attend affects the educational system. Asserts that the current enthusiasm for educational choice is an example of a broader effort to shift the responsibility for addressing deeply-rooted social and economic problems out of the public…

This article reviews implementation of the school choice and supplementary educational services provisions contained in the No Child Left Behind Act. School district progress, resistance, and obstacles to implementation are discussed and a number of practical remedies to improve implementation of school choice and supplemental educational services…

This paper discusses why the Roman Catholic community should be united on the desirability of school choice without financial penalty. It describes what the Catholic motives should be and the political warrant that can be employed. It then asks whether there is sufficient will in the Catholic community to fulfill its proper motivations and…

This document discusses the shift in democratic countries toward the allocation of responsibility for the organization and control of education in the public system by decentralization from the center to the local community and beyond, to the governing bodies of individual schools, and to the parents who are represented on school councils. This…

A study of the Michigan Education Trust (MET) advance tuition prepayment plan was conducted to generate a demographic profile of current MET enrollees, compare the profile with that of the general population on certain characteristics, and identify any shifts in participant patterns from the first and second rounds of enrollment. Study findings…

Governments restrict choice about what students learn within the public school system in the name of improved performance and accountability, but have simultaneously introduced choice among schools by enabling "exit" from the public system. Defenders of public education need to consider how public schools can provide citizens with…

Defining community politically (as a flexible arena for debating perspectives and achieving purpose) provides different ways to consider diversity. Diversity becomes not an anomaly but an integral part of the community process; conflict is legitimized as appropriate and inevitable in achieving school purposes. Administrators must mediate conflict,…

The National Education Association and other forces opposing a free market in education attack school choice as a threat to the nation. Many conservatives also embrace that opinion. One example is found in an article by Trowbridge entitled "Devil's Deal." This paper analyzes Trowbridge's article, focusing on parental rights and…

Based on the author's teaching/counseling experience, describes the micropolitics of race and privilege manifest in one elite independent school that threatened academically gifted African-American high school students' success. Privileged education must be reexamined before advocating it for students currently ill-served by public schools.…

Reviews the many dramatically different forms of school choice proposals, warning against implementing sharply limited and regulated school choice plans and arguing that if the failure of school choice is wrongly attributed to too much choice rather than too little, broader and freer experiments in choice could be politically doomed. Focuses on…

Argues that school choice, with its reliance on market forces, has serious implications for what goes on inside the school and the principal's role. Looks at changes in administrative focus and management style; at administrators and school marketing, with image management increasingly preoccupying school administrators; and the almost exclusive…

Why did our former president and the late progressive U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone support the charter public school approach, while rejecting public funds for private or parochial schools? Why has civil rights legend Rosa Parks been a strong charter supporter? Why has the number of states with some form of charter law grown from one in 1992 to…

This article consists of a case study and policy analysis of a conflict between two federal mandates that arose during the initial implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 in a southern school system, Richmond County, Georgia. The first part of the article documents the conflict, drawing on primary source documents and interviews…