Diversity Balance in Centralized Public School Admissions

Abstract

Parental choice over public schools has become a major educational reform throughout the United States and the world. Most district policies are implemented via admission priorities. Diversity in admissions is a common policy goal. However, it necessitates the violation of some priorities. We develop an axiomatic theory for meeting diversity objectives with a reserves system. We axiomatize the trade-off between diversity and priorities. We characterize the solution that uniquely and optimally achieves the diversity objectives via reserves by minimizing priority violations. The choice rule corresponds to a simple and natural implementation of application orders in a reserves system.