Doing School Choice Right

About

Following on the National Working Commission's work, the Doing School Choice Right project mounted several lines of inquiry to explore the practical challenges of implementing school choice programs:

• Explore what it takes to inform parents (especially low-income parents who normally get little information about schools) about the choices they have so they can match their child’s needs with a school’s offerings.
• Learn how school districts can try to help traditional public schools cope with the challenges of choice and competition.
• Create models for how school districts can oversee public schools in multiple ways—including direct operation, chartering, contracting, and licensing private schools to admit voucher students. This study is conducted in partnership with the National Charter School Research Project.
• Examine issues involved in moving toward pupil-based funding, particularly technical, legal, and regulatory barriers.
• Explore how districts can solve the pupil transportation problems raised by choice programs.

DSCR took on these issues because district and state leaders considered them gatekeeper issues in the choice debate.

With Paul T. Hill as the principal investigator, the initiative's goal is to help state and local leaders handle practical issues whose resolution can determine whether school choice helps or harms children, especially low-income children in big cities.

The project is funded by the Lynde and Harry Bradley, Annie E. Casey, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. We would like to express our appreciation for their generous support of this work.