There are parents and students who are to be won or lost depending on which sector--public or private--answers their calls for programs to match their learning styles and desire for rigor, vitality, and variety. This report examines where choice has evolved from, what it offers parents and students, and how its disappearance could affect this society. Chapter 2 explains how choices in public schools have grown since the 1960's with more than an estimated 10,000 alternative schools and hundreds of magnet programs. Succeeding chapters concern research on choice, curriculum alternatives in comprehensive high schools, magnet schools, the voucher idea, home schooling, tax credits, and searching for value choices. Specific chapters are devoted to "Los Angeles: A Study in Choices" and"Private Schools: An Enrollment Saga." Chapter 8, "'Unconventional' Choices," discusses vouchers already in place in three states, students enrolled in schools near their parents' work place, day care programs, residential magnet schools, and proprietary schools. The last chapter, "Planning for Choices," is followed by a public relations plan for education choice and a bibliography. (MLF)