Opinions on Schools Choice

On Tuesday, August 11, 2009, I had an appointment with Dr. Jillian Reese to discuss school choice, charter schools, and vouchers. Unfortunately, Dr. Reese was unable to attend our meeting. Therefore, I met with Dr. Robert Shouse, an Associate Professor of Education. Although his studies focused more on the theory of education versus actual facts and policy, he was still able to make me think about different issues surrounding school choice.

For this entry, I am going to present some facts about school choice including working definitions of vouchers. Following the snippet of facts, I am going to provide a short opinionated summary of my meeting with Dr. Shouse.

The Facts
School choice is a concept based on the idea that parents should be able to choose where their child goes to school rather than being forced into a school system for geographic reasons. The most common options for parents include charter schools, other public schools, private schools, vouchers, and homeschooling. Under this concept, parents can do several things: 1) keep their child in the geographically-assigned public school, 2) move their child to another public school, 3) send their child to a private institution, 4) put their child in a local charter school, 5) home school their child, or 6) receive compensation from the government in the form of a voucher to send their child to a private school.

The Opinions
Dr. Shouse commented that there is not a huge movement toward school choice because people lack “inertia.” Changing schools for one’s child is “not cost free.” It costs time and money to make the switch. However, he made the free-market argument that seems to be the central theme of the drive for school choice. “Parents will ultimately decide which school is best,” says Shouse. If parents have more freedom about school choice, they will theoretically send their child to the best school. However, remember that school choice could be a costly decision, especially if the school is an hour away. For example, students in Philadelphia who wish to attend the W. B. Saul Magnet School for the Agricultural Sciences sometimes have to travel for two hours undergoing three public transportation transfers in order to reach the school. Is this really practical?

Opponents of the voucher system claim upper to middle class parents are the ones who are taking advantage of the system, and these parents can usually afford private schools without compensation from the government via a voucher. Lower class parents face greater barriers to receiving vouchers. Dr. Shouse contends this. He says that he doubts there are many barriers for the lower class. If parents of lower class families want to send their child to a private institution, the vouchers should be available to compensate them if indeed a voucher system is in place.

Dr. Shouse said that about 60-70 percent of the factors that help students learn are outside the control of the school, and of the remaining 30-40 percent that are school-controlled, only about 20 percent are actually controlled. Therefore, he makes the claim that the parent knows the child best and can therefore send the child to a school that will best fit the child’s needs.

The main opposition to school choice seems to come from teacher unions, a thought proposed by Dr. Shouse. Are teacher unions afraid of competition from other schools? Are they threatened by school choice? I have not quite decided.


I would like to thank Dr. Shouse for taking the time to sit with me. In the next blog entry, I would like to pursue the question of segregation in charter and magnet schools.