School Quality, School Choice and Residential Mobility

Abstract

Since the 1990’s the school choice options available to parents have expanded dramatically. As an alternative to their residentially zoned public school, parents in many states can now take advantage of charter schools, magnet schools, inter/intra-district choice plans and vouchers to attend private schools. Since school choice programs weaken the link between school quality and residential location, they have the potential to affect both property values and the residential location decisions of households. In this chapter I first review the literature on the link between residential location decisions and school quality when schooling options are determined by a strict residential-based assignment system. I then survey the emerging theoretical and empirical literature that examines how school choice policies that decouple the strict link between school quality and residential location affect housing markets and residential mobility.