The full-length American Journal of Education article by Jabbar et al. can be accessed here. Advocates argue that school choice gives racially minoritized families access to better schooling options. But empirical research suggests that school choice policies can reproduce or even widen racial inequalities in access to high-quality schools (Blatt & Votruba-Drzal, 2021; Frankenberg et al., 2011;
NEW YORK, NY – With the recent confirmation of Betsy DeVos and the shift toward a federal education agenda that focuses on school choice, the organization Intelligence Squared hosted a debate on March 1 over the claim “Charter schools are overrated.” The debaters were two academics for the motion, Gary Miron from Western Michigan University and
Image by flickr user Tobi Gaulke What role should private wealth play in shaping public institutions? This highly contentious question is often at the center of policy debates in the United States, and education policy is certainly no exception. As private foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation work to expand their reach
The impact of public school choice through the development of charter schools, on the sorting of students along racial, class and ability lines has been a fundamental issue in school choice research and policy debates. Early concern was that the creation of charter schools would lead to “cream skimming” of whiter, wealthier and higher achieving
School vouchers are currently one of the most controversial educational policies and are hotly debated among politicians, practitioners, and researchers. Largely missing from both the debate and research on voucher effectiveness, however, are the schools that voucher students actually attend. Given that the role of schools is so central to the logic of vouchers,
Shopping at Wal-Mart provides the benefit of low prices, but often at the sacrifice of quality. For example, if one wants to purchase a premier suit or dress, he or she will likely receive higher quality by getting it personally tailored. The same rings true when the quality of fast food is compared to
Author Update (August 12, 2021) Since the writing of my co-authored publication, “School Choice Policies and Racial Segregation: Where White Parents’ Good Intentions, Anxiety, and Privilege Collide” (Roda & Wells, 2013), numerous other studies have documented how mostly white, advantaged parents interact with school choice policies in urban areas—portraying them as simultaneously anxious about the
