This paper, by the President of the Detroit Board of Education, discusses aspects of the school choice issue, providing examples from recent developments in the Detroit (Michigan) public school system. The paper argues that freedom of choice in an educational context is a critical right of parents, and that schools of choice offer the best…

Parental choice is seen as a promising approach to school improvement. This report supports choice by suggesting answers to the following questions that reformers might ask: (1) is school performance poor enough to justify wholesale change? (2) what have schools done about troubling trends in student performance? (3) what do other researchers say…

The Assisted Places Scheme introduced by England's Conservative government in 1980 provides for the government to make up the difference between the cost of private secondary school tuition and the amount that eligible students can afford to pay (determined according to a sliding scale based on parent income). As a result, the private schools can…

From October 1982 through September 1984, the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) piloted a research and demonstration project to test the outcome of using vouchers to finance the public provision of child care. Because of historical funding patterns which tied day care subsidies to particular…

The value system of a school is a major factor affecting the teacher's working conditions, but public discourse on educational reform tends to avoid serious discussion of the most deeply embedded values in our educational system. This absence of serious reflection on values limits consideration of alternatives for improving both education and the…

This paper considers how acceptance of arguments for the rights of parents to choose their children's schools would affect the regulatory and fiscal policies that underlie the existing mixed public/private system. The paper first reviews the existing system, describing state and federal methods for providing financial assistance to private…

This selective and annotated bibliography represents the body of literature published on nonpublic elementary and secondary education between 1950 and 1980, as well as some important titles that appeared in 1981. The work covers all aspects of independent and church-related schools--their aims and objectives, history, administration, and…

A model is proposed for enhancing family choice in public education; unlike many previous voucher plans, it would build on current trends in educational administration. Following an introduction that reviews these trends--highlighting recent developments in California school finance--two central assumptions are stated: that regulated competition…

Interviews with the parents of 153 randomly selected fifth-grade students in urban and suburban schools in the Chicago (Illinois) area provided the data for addressing two hypotheses: first, that parents' choice among educational alternatives for their children may depend on parental dispositions toward the role of schooling in their children's…

Private schools receive differential treatment in Canada because of the dominant viewpoint that parents sending their children to private schools do not deserve government assistance. Examination of entitlement to human rights can contribute to developing a more sympathetic view of the funding of private schools. (Author/JAZ)

The article reviews the National Governors Association recommendation to allow parents to choose the public schools their children attend. Included are U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett's comments on the recommendations and comments by other concurring educators. The role of school boards as elected representatives of the community is…

This study evaluates the effect that the size of a state's school districts has on public high school graduation rates. The authors calculate the graduation rate over the last decade and examine the relationship between these graduation rates and changes in each state's average school district size. The study finds that decreasing the size of…

In 2000, an Idea Brief asserted that the best way to improve education would be to give every schoolchild the opportunity to attend a middle class public school (economic school integration). This brief reviews recent research and policy developments regarding economic school integration, noting that school segregation based on socioeconomic…

This report has describes how the young Indianapolis charter school initiative can claim a number of successes: (1) Many community leaders have stepped forward to spearhead the creation of charter schools, bringing new energy and resources into public education; (2) Parents have flocked to the new schools, lining up on waiting lists and noting…

For the first time since the expansion of the choice program to include religious schools in 1998-1999, fewer K4 students are receiving vouchers than in the previous year. This decrease accompanies the first year of implementation of the Milwaukee Public Schools' (MPS) Neighborhood Schools Initiative, which added full-day K4 to 27 MPS neighborhood…