School Choice, Magnet Schools, and the Liberation Model: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The rapid growth of magnet schools in the 1980s introduced the first widely adopted form of public school choice in the United States. Magnet-based choice is supported as a way to expand school choice for parents, bring innovation through specialty schools and programs, and promote voluntary forms of racial integration. Some contend that this form of public school choice is especially helpful to lower-income parents who are trapped in inferior inner-city schools, while others claim that magnet schools may worsen stratification among schools by family income. The study presented here used a large national data set to examine relationships between magnet-based school choice and income-based stratification in school districts. It did not find a difference between school districts with magnet-based school choice and school districts without school choice. Implications for other forms of school choice are discussed.