School Choice: The Struggle for the Soul of American Education

Few school reform movements have aroused more public passion than school choice. Should families have a voice in deciding which schools their children attend? Is it true that increased competition leads to better schools? How do the various school choice proposals differ? Are school choice policies logistically feasible and economically viable?

In this book Peter Cookson, a noted educational sociologist, discusses the practice and politics of school choice objectively and comprehensively. Cookson illuminates the philosophical and historical origins of the school choice movement, examines a variety of school choice plans around the nation, and analyzes the outcomes of school choice in terms of student achievement, school improvement, and the rights of the citizenry.

Drawing on his own observations, interviews, and analyses of school choice research, Cookson clarifies a number of issues surrounding this hotly debated topic. He discusses, for example:
—programs in Minnesota, Cambridge and Fall River, Massachusetts, and East Harlem and White Plains, New York, that demonstrate how choice can solve fundamental educational problems;
—a voucher system in Milwaukee that allows children to enroll in private as well as public schools;
—whether establishing an educational marketplace might result in fraudulent representation and other business malpractices;
—whether choice policies will overcome or intensify social stratification and segregation.

Cookson argues that school choice can be a useful tactic of educational reform, but that without good schools to choose among and full access to information about the options, the ability to choose is meaningless. He concludes by offering a proposal that would make school choice an innovative mechanism in the creation of a school system that is at once more egalitarian and superior.