In defense of neoliberal education policy: or, why Ravitch is wrong about school choice.

• Author: Dempster, Gregory M.
• Position: Diane Ravitch - Critical essay

Diane Ravitch's article "Why I Changed My Mind," published in the June 14, 2010, edition of The Nation, is notable not only for the abrupt about-face from one of the Bush Sr. administration's foremost advocates of federally mandated school accountability standards, but also for the idea that the reforms that followed--in particular the Bush Jr. era "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) legislation--represent a nationwide accountability experiment that can be employed to judge all school choice initiatives and other "neoliberal" education policies in the United States. Ravitch subsequently systemized these thoughts into an influential book (Ravitch 2011). However, school choice advocates, in general, do not necessarily agree with her interpretation of events; rather, the overwhelming sentiment among these advocates is that the Bush Jr. era reforms never did in fact even approximate the types of programs that truly exemplify "school choice." It is worth reviewing the background and evidence regarding Ravitch's claims to understand whether recent reforms do or do not represent an accountability experiment and what (if any) conclusions can be drawn from their now somewhat (though not entirely) discredited approach. In conjunction with this review, the current article provides a detailed, up-to-date accounting of the legal developments at federal and state levels that relate to school choice and help to define the realm of activities that exemplify school choice in the broad sense of the term.

Background

School choice refers to the notion that parents of K-12 children should have some flexibility in determining the nature, conduct, and content of their children's educational experiences. Compulsory schooling laws in all fifty states require that children of K-12 age receive appropriate schooling but do not prescribe the particular manner in which this education must be delivered. Most localities, in addition to providing public schooling, may have a variety of nonpublic (parochial, private) schooling options available to those willing to pay or able to qualify for scholarships and funding; furthermore, many states offer tax breaks for expenses associated with schooling from private and parochial sources. However, because such opportunities are generally available only to children of middle- to upper-class parents as well as to a select few others, it remains the case that most children are confined by means of resources and residence to one or, at most, a few public-school choices.

To an extent, the concept of parental choice in schooling is already deeply engrained in American society (Loeb, Valant, and Kasman 2011, 143). Charles Tiebout (1956) notes that families can and often do sort themselves into communities that best satisfy their interests and preferences, and this is undoubtedly true for parents of school-age children with the willingness and ability to avail themselves of the variety of choices available among public and private schools in different areas. The phenomenon of "white flight" to suburban areas is often attributed in large part to parents' desire to ensure a range of viable and meaningful options in terms of K-12 schooling for their children. In essence, such families are exercising a form of school choice available to those with means (resources) at their disposal. Similarly, private-school choice is very similar to the choice of communities for public schooling because it "typically requires some degree of expendable resources" (Loeb, Valant, and Kasman 2011, 143). More than 10 percent of K-12 students attended private schools as of 2010 (National Center for Education Statistics 2010). Thus, the relevant question is not whether school choice exists, but which types of choice do and do not exist, in what areas, and how prevalently.

Milton Friedman (1955) is often cited as the instigator of the substantive debate on school choice in the United States. In proposing a system of broad parental choice in K-12 education, along with the separation of public funding of education from its public provision, Fricdman's article is said to have "ushered in one of the fiercest debates" on educational policy in the country's history (Loeb, Valant, and Kasman 2011, 141). However, as noted earlier, the notion of parental choice in the framework of compulsory education has a history that stretches much farther back.

Typology and Evidence on School Choice Initiatives

Among the many types of school choice initiatives that are frequently discussed and developed, apart from the aforementioned private and residential options, we can distinguish between at least five categories:

1. Choice among public-school options. This category includes the practices of district school systems that allow students to enroll in one of many schools throughout the district or even from other districts. There are some school districts where children are not assigned to specific schools but must choose from among all (or many) district schools. Families in these districts are asked to rank schools according to preference but are not guaranteed the school of their choice, with criteria for selection often based on socioeconomic and other factors. Interdistrict transfer is also allowed in some states, with as many as 2 to 3 percent of children in states such as Iowa and Minnesota attending schools outside their district of residence (Sugarman 2004, 77).

2. Charter schools. Charter schools are independent, tuition-free public schools that are privately operated and thus released from many state and local regulations in exchange for rigorous academic, fiscal, and managerial standards set down in the school charter (Loeb, Valant, and Kasman 2011, 143). Because charter schools are autonomous public schools, they are free to innovate in areas such as curriculum design, learning environment, school culture, and the like. Funding follows the student from his or her residential school district to the charter school. Public-private partnerships have been used to finance the construction and maintenance of some charter schools. Roughly 1.4 million students, about 3 percent of all students, are enrolled in nearly five thousand charter schools in the United States.

3. Homeschooling. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that in 2009 approximately 1.5 million K-12 students were homeschooled (2010). This means that the impact of homeschooling is similar in magnitude (number of students) to that of charter schools in the United States. Regulation of homeschooling varies...