Private Choices, Public Consequences: Magnet School Choice and Segregation by Race and Poverty

White charter school enclaves — defined as charter schools located in school districts that are thirty percent or less white, but that enroll a student body that is fifty percent or greater white — are emerging across the country. The emergence of white charter school enclaves is the result of a sobering but ugly truth: when given a choice, white parents as a collective tend to choose racially segregated, predominately white schools. Empirical research supports this claim. Empirical research also demonstrates that white parents as a collective will make that choice even when presented with the option of a more racially diverse school that is of good academic quality. Despite the connection between collective white parental choice and school segregation, greater choice continues to be injected into the school assignment process. School choice assignment policies, particularly charter schools, are proliferating at a substantial rate. As a result, parental choice rather than systemic design is creating new patterns of racial segregation and inequality in public schools. Yet the Supreme Court’s school desegregation jurisprudence insulates from legal scrutiny racial segregation in schools ostensibly caused by parental choice rather than systemic design. Consequently, the new patterns of racial segregation in public schools caused by collective white parental choice are largely escaping regulation by courts. This article argues that the time has come to reconsider the legal and normative viability of regulating racial segregation in public schools caused by collective white parental choice. The article makes two important contributions to the legal literature on school desegregation. First, using white charter school enclaves as an example, it documents the ways in which school choice policies are being used to allow whites as a collective to satisfy their preference for segregated predominately white schools. Second, the article sets forth both constitutional and normative arguments for regulating the private choices that result in stark racial segregation patterns in public schools.

This paper examines how families make choices within the context of a school choice program. School choice proponents suggest that increasing choices for disadvantaged children will have many benefits, including decreasing racial segregation in urban areas. This argument has not been supported with empirical data. In this paper, we use quantitative and interview data from an entire population of eighth graders in a large northeastern school district to examine the influence of race on the schools families select. We find compelling evidence that race is a very powerful force in guiding family choices. Specifically, white families assiduously avoid schools with higher percentages of African American students. After eliminating “black” schools from consideration, white families choose “white” schools, many of which have inferior safety records, test scores, and higher rates of poverty. In contrast, African American families do not show a similar sensitivity to race; instead they tend to select schools with lower poverty rates. These findings have a number of implications for theory and policy. In terms of policy, choice advocates argue that voucher programs will give poor, African American children the same alternatives currently available to more affluent, white families. This should make choice programs compatible with the goal of racial integration. However, our evidence suggests that the marked preference of white families to avoid “black” schools could exacerbate, rather than reduce, racial segregation. These findings also have conceptual implications. Decision-making is a socially charged activity; choices are not made merely on the basis of individual taste. Rather, preferences are shaped by social factors, including one's racial background. White and African American families make distinctly different school choices. Indeed, white families eliminate from consideration schools in which 90 percent or more of the children are African American. The further theoretical implication is that choices unfold in a multi-staged process in which some alternatives are eliminated from serious consideration based upon socially salient characteristics. This has the power to inform the choice process in the social settings of housing, hiring practices, and similar areas of social life.

This study investigates how much the racial composition of communities influences the private school enrollment rates of members of different racial groups. Some scholars argue that private school enrollment contributes to racial segregation in public schools because White families attempt to enhance the social status of their children by leaving public schools serving communities with higher percentages of children who are Black. A second group of scholars argue that private school enrollment is primarily based on nonracial factors. A third, related perspective argues that race is of diminishing importance in driving behaviors such as school choice. This study explores these perspectives using 1990 and 2000 Public Use Micro Data Samples to estimate private school enrollment rates by student race and community racial composition. Findings indicate that private school enrollment rates among Asian, Black, and Hispanic students do not fluctuate much with community racial composition. By contrast, private school enrollment rates among White families are strongly and positively correlated with the percentage of children in their communities who are Black—even after holding constant a series of individual and community-level factors that may account for this trend. Moreover, the association between race and choice has changed little between 1990 and 2000.

Research examining middle‐class parents' school choices often overlooks parents in post‐socialist nations, where social reproduction may occur differently than in Western urban contexts. To bridge this gap, our study illuminates the intersection of Czech middle‐class parents' school choices and parenting strategies. Drawing on 26 in‐depth interviews with parents, we depict “cultivation for wellbeing” as a distinct parenting approach prevalent within a subset of the Czech middle class that challenges prevailing Western depictions of middle‐class child‐rearing strategies in relation to school choice. We describe five areas in which the parenting approach contrasts with concerted cultivation and intensive parenting: the promotion of unstructured free time, autonomous socialization with selected peers, a propensity to avoid confronting teachers, gentle support for children's interests, and a focus on emotional and physical wellbeing. We posit that “cultivation for wellbeing” serves as a mechanism for social distinction among a segment of middle‐class parents, enabling them to distinguish themselves from other class segments by selecting and seamlessly accessing exclusive public school settings tailored to their nuanced educational preferences. The study underscores the need to reassess the dominant portrayals of middle‐class parenting strategies, highlighting the complex interplay between child‐rearing, school choice, and social reproduction in diverse cultural contexts.

Dawn of Desegregation: J. A. De Laine and Briggs v. Elliot, by Ophelia De Laine Gona. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2010,216 pp., $29.95, paperback.Things don't just happen, you've got to make them.(De Laine Gona, 2010, p. 157).Such was the advice of Reverend Joseph Armstrong De Laine. It was 1952, and he had just filed the first lawsuit to challenge racial segregation in public schools in the United States. The case, which would be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, was known as Briggs et al. v. Elliot (1952). It subsequently forced the state of the South Carolina to provide facilities for its African American students. There were many African American communities that sought to better the lives of their children by challenging segregation in education (Fairclough, 2007). Concurrently, the court tackled 4 other lawsuits: Boling v. Sharpe (1954), Brown, v. Board of Education, (1954), Gebhart. v. Belton, (1952), and Davis v. County Board of Prince Edward County (1952). By May, 1954, the court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The first case heard Brown, set the legal precedent; the other lawsuits and the notable people who perpetuated them have remained in relative obscurity.In Dawn of Desegregation: J. A. De Laine and Briggs v. Elliot, Ophelia De Laine Gona, the daughter of Rev. De Laine, chronicles the origins of the Briggs case and its impact. The author, who is passionate about people's struggles for equality, wrote the book so that the story would be accurate. She followed the historical research method, consulting primary sources (including her father's correspondence) and developed a narrative in relationship to the secondary sources. While her father is the central character of the book, she also credits the many African Americans of Clarendon County who lost their jobs, homes, and quality of life to challenge the status quo.In the first part of the book, she portrays the county's racial climate prior to 1948. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court had mandated a separate but equal system. But this doctrine placed African Americans at the bottom of the social order; for example, their children attended inferior and underfunded schools in comparison to their White counterparts. Black citizens were subjected to double taxation-because taxes disproportionately went to White schools, the African American community paid out of their pockets to help meet the financial demands of their respective schools (Walker, 1996).In fact, the Briggs case was about just getting a school bus. In 1946, Rev. De Laine was 48 years old, principal of a small elementary school, and pastor of a Methodist church. He agreed to go to the school board to ask for a bus for students who lived far from school. As the author explains in Part 2 of the book, by 1947, the proposal had turned into a lawsuit Pearson v. County Board of Education (1948), filed in the U.S. Eastern District Court of South Carolina. Meanwhile, Rev. De Laine became embroiled in a smaller skirmish for justice. Allegedly, a principal of an all-Black high school had pocketed money from the graduating seniors. Rev. De Laine helped to organize students to challenge that principal.A group formed to address inequalities in education, headed by Rev. De Laine. This group, Committee on Action, prepared a signed petition. But there would be dire consequences to their organizing efforts. Rev. De Laine was relieved of his principalship (only to be offered a position by the superintendent to save face-which De Laine refused). Furthermore, De Laine was slandered and received death threats. He was even challenged to a fist fight by a stooge of the city fathers. Many who signed the petition lost their jobs, lost credit, or were evicted. Despite the consequences, most African Americans continued to support the committee.Part 3 of the book describes what happened from 1950 to the 1954 Brown ruling. …

This article explores the relationship between school choice, student mobility and school segregation in Barcelona. The case of Barcelona is particularly interesting because the school admissions policy combines a particular design of catchment area with a significant level of choice options. We work on students and school register datasets for the school year 2016–2017 to observe the association between the socioeconomic characteristics of the students and their residential and educational geographical distribution. The article tests whether recent reforms that have undermined the role of residential proximity in admissions policy have impacted on the school segregation of three groups of socially disadvantaged students (foreign students, students entitled to Free School Meals (FSM) and students who are Recipients of Social Allowances (RSA)). We explore different patterns of mobility between socially disadvantaged and non‐disadvantaged students and the impact of opting out from neighbourhood schools on school segregation. By using a counterfactual approach that compares real enrolment with simulated school enrolment in proximity schools, we provide evidence of a significant reduction of school segregation for all socially disadvantaged students, showing the negative effects of the current high number of school choice options. In addition, our analysis shows that school choice boosts remarkably the inequality between public and private subsidised schools. The final section of the article reflects on the implications of our findings for potential reforms in the current definition of catchment areas and the overall school choice policy in Barcelona.

This article analyzes whether state constitutional provisions can be used to compel a state to eliminate de facto segregation in public schools. It first explains how the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to find that de facto segregation violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment has forced the federal judiciary to withdraw from school desegregation. It then analyzes the arguments made by social scientists and African Americans against school desegregation. It also examines Sheff v. O'Neill, a 1996 decision in which the Connecticut Supreme Court held that de facto segregation violates the state constitution. Finally, it discusses important implications for litigation in other states. More than 45 years after the U.S. Supreme Court held in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954; Brown I) that state-sponsored public school segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, African Americans are experiencing an increase in public school segregation (Orfield, Bachmeier, James, & Eitle, 1997; Orfield & Eaton, 1996). The Supreme Court has helped to resegregate the public schools by permitting the federal judiciary to implement desegregation decrees to eliminate de jure segregation but not de facto segregation (Orfield et al., 1997; Orfield & Eaton, 1996). De jure segregation of the public schools arises from the intentional actions of governmental entities (Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado, 1973; Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 1971). De facto segregation is caused by other factors such as private choices (Freeman v. Pitts, 1992; Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado, 1973). The Supreme Court has used this distinction to forbid district courts from including suburban districts in city school desegregation decrees and to permit district courts to withdraw from overseeing school districts that had committed de jure segregation. Although social scientists and many African Americans have questioned the efficacy of school desegregation remedies, this policy is the best means to protect the interests of African American students and to develop an integrated society (The Desegregation Dilemma, 1996; Orfield & Eaton, 1996). As the federal judiciary withdraws from public school desegregation, civil rights organizations are beginning to use state constitutional provisions to desegregate public schools that are experiencing de facto segregation. A recent Connecticut case, Sheff v. O'Neill (1996), demonstrates that this strategy can be successful. In Sheff, the state supreme court held that the de facto segregation of the Hartford metropolitan school system deprived students of a substantially equal educational opportunity. The court distinguished its equal protection clause from that of the U.S. Constitution by noting that the state provision specifically forbids desegregation. Thus, the state constitution forbade de facto as well as de jure segregation. The court then required the legislature to take measures to dismantle such isolation. The state legislature responded by passing legislation calling for magnet schools, charter schools, and voluntary choice (1997 Connecticut Public Act No. 290, 1997). The Sheff case raises important issues for litigation in other states. First, plaintiffs in other states may not be able to base their challenges to de facto segregation on their state equal protection clause provisions. Besides Connecticut, only two other states have equal protection clauses that specifically forbid desegregation. Thus, other state courts may use Supreme Court case law as persuasive authority to conclude that their state equal protection clauses permit de facto segregation. School finance litigation provides a template for developing an alternative argument to challenge de facto segregation. Plaintiffs originally argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U. …

There is a strong tradition of studying residential segregation and school segregation as separate phenomena. It is less common to find research that attempts to connect the two and measure the combined consequences on inequality and social cohesion. While many authors in the US have taken an interest in this connection, it remains less studied in France compared to other European countries like Great Britain, Finland and the Netherlands. This is quite surprising in a country where, due to a rather rigid policy of school catchment areas based on place of residence in large cities, there is a strong correlation between socio-residential segregation and school segregation. To understand this complex, interdependent link, we have to take into account institutional, social and urban dimensions. The chapter has two main goals. The first is to show that school segregation is not merely a simple, mechanical reflection of residential segregation, but the result of many processes related to school policies, parental strategies and urban inequalities. For this reason, we pay attention to the specific context of the metropolitan area of Paris, both in terms of residential and school segregation and in terms of school policy. The second aim of this chapter is to show that school segregation not only has an impact on school achievement, but also on more qualitative issues such as the perception of inequalities and the feeling of discrimination. Here, we will not focus on the impact on school performance, but rather on how it shapes how people perceive school segregation. The first part of the chapter deals with the first aim, and will present and discuss how and why, in the city of Paris, school segregation is more intense than residential segregation, and some of the reasons school issues are increasingly interwoven with residential strategies. After an overall presentation of the French context, and school and residential patterns in Paris, we will show that school segregation is not only the result of lower-middle-class parents avoiding local working-class public schools. The chapter will look closely at the impact of selective upper-middle-class school choices, even when families live in advantaged neighbourhoods. The second part of the chapter addresses the second aim, offering an explanation for why the feeling of being trapped in segregated, ‘disreputable’ public schools, a feeling which is shared among people from disadvantaged and immigrant backgrounds as well as parts of the lower-middle class, has a deep impact on social cohesion. We will see how this encourages working-class people to think more in terms of discrimination (segregation as the result of an intentional process) rather than in terms of inequality, calling into question public schools’ capacity for guaranteeing equal opportunity. This is another way of analysing how people facing an unequal context perceive injustice.

This study examines school segregation in Oslo, a city with an egalitarian education system but significant residential divides. Using individual-level data from 2008–2009 and 2018–2019, it analyses how school choice shapes segregation in primary public schools. While residential patterns remain the key driver, school choice introduces new complexities. At the urban scale, school segregation decreases due to higher levels of school choice among families with immigrant backgrounds. However, at the neighbourhood level, many schools affected by opting out see increased ethnic and socioeconomic segregation.

Since the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, researchers and policy makers have paid close attention to trends in school segregation. Here we review the evidence regarding trends and consequences of both racial and economic school segregation since Brown. The evidence suggests that the most significant declines in black-white school segregation occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There is disagreement about the direction of more recent trends in racial segregation, largely driven by how one defines and measures segregation. Depending on the definition used, segregation has either increased substantially or changed little, although there are important differences in the trends across regions, racial groups, and institutional levels. Limited evidence on school economic segregation makes documenting trends difficult, but students appear to be more segregated by income across schools and districts today than in 1990. We also discuss the role of desegregation litigation, demographic changes, and residential segregation in shaping trends in both racial and economic segregation. We develop a general conceptual model of how and why school segregation might affect students and review the relatively thin body of empirical evidence that explicitly assesses the consequences of school segregation. We conclude with a discussion of aspects of school segregation on which further research is needed.

School choice is not new. Parents for years have selected schools for their children by choice of residence and by paying private school tuition. In the 1960s, freedom of choice was used in the South to maintain decades of prior racial segregation in public schools and then later through magnet schools to promote school integration. Th e development of thematic public schools in combination with intra-and interdistrict choice programs has given many parents a greater say in the education of their children.

Interdistrict choice has the potential to exacerbate or alleviate between-district segregation—an increasingly pervasive form of U.S. school segregation—by allowing students to attend schools in districts where they do not reside. Prior research concentrates on the effects of charter schooling on segregation within districts and counties. We used longitudinal enrollment and demographic data from Michigan to examine the impacts of both interdistrict and charter school choice on racial and economic segregation within and between districts in a single setting. We estimated these effects by leveraging between-grade differences in choice use within school systems and years. We confirmed findings from previous research that increases in charter school enrollment increase within-district racial and economic segregation. We also found that the effects of interdistrict choice on both within- and between-district segregation vary with the presence of charter schools.

Over the past few decades, school choice has been a widely debated issue around the globe, following the development of pluralism, liberty, and democracy. In many countries, school choice systems were preceded by residence-based school assignment systems, creating a strong connection between a neighborhood and its schools’ demographic compositions. However, schools often remain highly segregated. School segregation is thus seen as a major problem and is supposedly driven by three main factors: residential segregation, parental school choice, and schools’ selection of pupils. This paper aims to shed light on what research should be focusing on as regards school choice and residential segregation with the following two research questions: What are the links between neighborhood and school choice in the literature? How are neighborhood and school choice connected to school segregation in the literature? Two main findings emerged: (1) the neighborhood-based social networks that parents developed had limited their school choices and (2) neighborhood segregation is one of the most important factors that contributes to school segregation and is related to multi-ethnic and socioeconomic contexts.

It has been 50 years since magnet schools were first used to address segregation in public schools. The context of magnet schools has changed dramatically during this time, raising questions about the role of magnet schools in a modern context. This study utilized data from a large urban district with more than 100 magnet schools to assess integration from magnet schools in a modern context. The results point to integration in magnet schools, but this integration comes at the cost of segregating the traditional public schools in the district. Interdistrict transfers could improve the integrative capacity of magnet schools.

Schelling and Sakoda prominently proposed computational models suggesting that strong ethnic residential segregation can be the unintended outcome of a self-reinforcing dynamic driven by choices of individuals with rather tolerant ethnic preferences. There are only few attempts to apply this view to school choice, another important arena in which ethnic segregation occurs. In the current paper, we explore with an agent-based theoretical model similar to those proposed for residential segregation, how ethnic tolerance among parents can affect the level of school segregation. More specifically, we ask whether and under which conditions school segregation could be reduced if more parents hold tolerant ethnic preferences. We move beyond earlier models of school segregation in three ways. First, we model individual school choices using a random utility discrete choice approach. Second, we vary the pattern of ethnic segregation in the residential context of school choices systematically, comparing residential maps in which segregation is unrelated to parents’ level of tolerance to residential maps reflecting their ethnic preferences. Thirdly, we introduce heterogeneity in tolerance levels among parents belonging to the same group. Our simulation experiments suggest that ethnic school segregation can be a very robust phenomenon, occurring even when about half of the population prefers mixed to segregated schools. However, we also identify a “sweet spot” in the parameter space in which a larger proportion of tolerant parents makes the biggest difference. This is the case when the preference for nearby schools weighs heavily in parents utility function and the residential map is only moderately segregated. Further experiments are presented that unravel the underlying mechanisms.