A new study published by EdChoice shows what school choice advocates have long said: School choice programs aren’t segregating private and public schools by race.
Some school choice opponents argue that school choice programs are just a mechanism for white families to get their students out of largely black public schools and into largely white private schools.
Not so, the study says. “Results show the average percentage of non-white students in private schools grew over time in choice states similar to schools in non-choice states,” the study’s three authors write. “Moreover, the percentage of minority students enrolled in private schools as compared to the surrounding school-aged populations did not appear to change as a function of choice programs.”
Still, some school choice advocates say programs act as a desegregation method through which minority families can get into largely white, higher-quality schools. The study also negates those claims, or at least the idea that minority families are doing that en masse.
In short, school choice programs apparently aren’t affecting the racial makeup of public or private schools much at all, at least according to this study.
The study was authored by Dick Carpenter and Rebecca Keith with the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and Andrew Catt with EdChoice.
Jason Russell is the contributors editor for the Washington Examiner.
