School Choice

Charles L. Glenn

Policies that deliberately promote parental choice of schools, the focus of this entry, are only a very small part of the school choice universe. Such policies are playing an increasingly significant role in educational policy debates in the United States, just as they have over many decades in other Western nations. The policy debate should be seen against the background of everyday school choice. In our mobile society, the reputation of local schools is a major factor in choice of residence on the part of those who can afford to make such choices. It is common for public secondary schools to offer a variety of programs and courses among which students can choose, often with major consequences for their subsequent opportunities in education and in life. Some of these are vocational (and of course choice among schools may also be for vocational reasons), others respond in large measure to how ...

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