More than a question of pass or fail; school choice must be more than an escape route for dissatisfied parents

Black Enterprise, May, 1994 by Cecilia A. Conrad

To be successful, a school choice scheme must provide something other than an opportunity for "white flight." (See "Taking Education As An Elective," Economic Perspectives, April 1994.) It must offer the incentives and means to improve the quality of schools in urban communities segregated by race and class.

The grocer selling stale bread can prosper despite his high-priced, low-quality product if the nearest alternative is a costly trip to another neighborhood. So too with schools, effective competition requires low transportation costs, fully informed consumers and adequate incentives for creating new schools within African-American communities.

In a celebrated school choice experiment begun in 1973, East Harlem, N.Y.'s District 4 eliminated all geographically determined enrollment requirements at its junior high schools. School assignments were based on each student's ranking of schools and a random selection process. Transportation costs and white flight were not major concerns in this geographically compact, overwhelmingly minority district.

By eliminating geographic assignments, the district forced all families to participate in the choice program. More importantly, the district actively encouraged entrepreneurship among teachers and administrators. It pioneered the concept of a school within a school, allowing teachers to set up small schools within existing facilities where they would have greater control over their classrooms. It encouraged principals to solicit business partnerships that offered not only expanded funding, but also mentors and managerial expertise.

Before the choice program, District 4 ranked last of New York City's 32 districts. Less than 15% of its students read at grade level. Since the start of school choice, the district's ranking improved to 16th in 1987, with 62.5% of its students reading at grade level.

In contrast, a statewide choice program launched in Minnesota in 1985 did not eliminate geographic assignments; provided limited subsidies for transportation; and instituted no changes in school organization. It failed to achieve the dramatic effects of East Harlem's school choice effort.

Clearly, a critical factor in the success of school choice is the ability to create innovative educational programs. One obstacle to innovation is its expense. In a larger school, the costs of specialized facilities and personnel, such as science instructors and laboratories, can be spread over a large number of students. (it is worth noting that students in small parochial schools, who generally score higher on reading and writing tests than their public school counterparts, have lower scores in science.)

School choice among public schools provides the opportunity to realize some of the cost savings of large-scale operations through shared facilities. The challenge is to design programs that realize the economies of scale and yet do not inhibit creative curricula development.

Cecilia A. Conrad is an assistant professor of economics at Barnard College in New York and a guest member of the BE Board of Economists.