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November 2003
A non-partisan commission of respected thinkers and researchers issued a new study, "School Choice: Doing it the Right Way Makes a Difference." The commission's goal was "to explore how school choice works and to examine how communities interested in the potential benefits of new school options could obtain them while avoiding choice's potential damage."
The commission's report was published November 17 by the Brookings Institution and was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates and the Anne E. Casey foundations.
In a column in Education Week, report author Paul Hill summarized the group's work:
"Will school choice be the end of public education? Or will it be the salvation of thousands of students who would otherwise fail in district-run schools? There is only one honest answer to these questions: It all depends."
"It depends in part on what we mean by public education. If we give public education a trivial definition, equating it with existing arrangements- including school boards elected in particular ways, large central-office bureaucracies, and teacher hiring and placement set through union agreements- proposals like charters and regulated vouchers surely threaten it. But if we define public education in a serious way, as a community's effort to make sure its children are all educated for good jobs and constructive citizenship, then choice might advance it. Any form of school choice, whether new options offered by school districts or new independent schools funded by vouchers, can support public education or can harm it. Everything depends on factors that are under human control, such as how choice is funded and organized, who can choose, what information parents get, and who takes public funds to run schools."
To read the full report, click on the PDF below.
You can also read the news coverage of the study by clicking on the links below.
Education Week Story 1
Education Week Story 2
School Choice Report .PDF
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