School Choice Popular, But Impact is Murky
Today, Delaware is one of 15 states with some sort of public school choice policy, the result of a 1995 law allowing statewide school choice. In addition, federal law in 2002 said children at low-performing schools can move to a better school in the district, which must provide transportation.
"It's a low-cost policy, which makes it attractive to legislators, and as long as it doesn't challenge traditions of local control, it's not particularly controversial," said school choice researcher Jeffrey Henig, a professor of education and political science at Columbia University's Teachers College. "There's not any good evidence of a competitive effect. It's very hard to sort out the impact of these choice things. What the evidence is pretty consistent on is that parents like choice."
This article, written by Jennifer Corbett, appeared in the April 9th, 2006 publication of The News Journal.
Published Monday, Apr. 10, 2006