Making Up Our Mind: What School Choice Is Really About

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- School Choice Today -- Not Your Parents' Schooling -- Design Trade-Offs -- What Follows -- Part 1. Historical Reflections on School Choice -- Original Choices -- An Educational Ecology Emerges -- Between Rome and Albany -- Rebels with Causes -- Choosing Neighbors and Schools -- Brown: Crawling Past Plessy -- The Bus Stops Here -- Experimental Visions -- Toward Plural Public Education -- From Plural Visions to Bounded Choices -- Federal Support Shifts from Magnets to Charters -- Part 2. The Value of Choice: A Normative Assessment -- Whose Education Is It? -- Private Options for Education Consumers -- Schools for the Public, by the Public -- Can Parents Be Effective Education Consumers? -- Labs for Innovation, or Unaccountable "Ghost Districts"? -- Choice through Privatization Supports Innovation -- The Limits of Innovation -- Limits of Accountability through Private Choice -- Accountability through Transparency -- Accountability through Participation -- Accountability through Sanctioning -- Accountability through Resistance -- Equal Access to Quality Education, or Another Layer of Separation? -- Choice Provides Equal Access to Quality Education -- Choice Creates Another Layer of Inequality and Separation -- Higher-Quality Education? -- Equal Access to Quality Education? -- New Layers of Separation -- Conclusion: Making Up Our Collective Mind -- Notes -- Index.

Introduction -- School choice today -- Not your parents' schooling -- Design trade-offs -- What follows -- Historical reflections on school choice. Original choices ; An educational ecology emerges ; Between Rome and Albany ; Rebels with causes ; Choosing neighbors and schools ; Brown: crawling past plessy ; The bus stops here ; Experimental visions ; Toward plural public education ; From plural visions to bounded choices ; Federal support shifts from magnets to charters -- The value of choice: a normative assessment. Whose education is it? ; Private options for education consumers ; Schools for the public, by the public ; Can parents be effective education consumers? ; Labs for innovation, or unaccountable "ghost districts"? ; Choice through privatization supports innovation ; The limits of innovation ; Limits of accountability through private choice ; Accountability through transparency ; Accountability through participation ; Accountability through sanctioning ; Accountability through resistance ; Equal access to quality education, or another layer of separation? ; Choice provides equal access to quality education ; Choice creates another layer of inequality and separation ; Higher-quality education? ; Equal access to quality education? ; New layers of separation -- Conclusion: making up our collective mind