Who We Are

Vision

Most American public school students attend a school to which they have been assigned based on where they live. But a growing number of students attend public schools that they and their parents deliberately chose. With the expansion of magnet schools, charter schools and other public school options, 15 percent of public school students were attending public schools of choice by 2003, compared to 10 percent in 1990. And many more families of means exercise school choice by choosing to live within the jurisdiction of a particular public school or school system.

Education Sector envisions a public education system where a wide range of education providers serve students' diverse needs by supplying many educational options, a system where choices are as commonplace as they are in most other facets of American life and, importantly, a system that stresses high-quality education, equity, and public accountability.

Rationale

Choice has long existed in the American public education system for middle and upper income families. Families with the means to do so have often chosen residences based on the quality of schools available in a particular neighborhood, taken advantage of competitive-entry magnet schools, or paid tuition at private schools. More recently, the creation of charter schools and other options has expanded educational choice within the public education system to families who otherwise could not afford it. We believe that expanding choice within public education, through public charter schools and other programs, has the potential to increase educational equity by giving all parents and students the power to choose their schools.

Consumer choice and customization of products and services are increasing in virtually all economic sectors. In education, choice offers a greater diversity of educational models, allowing for more customized educational programs to meet students' differing needs, especially those of students who are not currently being well-served in traditional public schools. Expanded public school choice also creates opportunities for talented people from outside of traditional education circles to contribute to the improvement of public schooling by opening and operating charter schools.

Strategy

Education Sector's work in educational choice will help educators and policymakers establish policies and practices that achieve the benefits of choice while avoiding its potential harms. Rather than use choice to build educational systems parallel to traditional public education, Education Sector believes that the most effective way to create high quality, equitable educational options for the largest possible number of students is to expand educational options, including charter schools, within the existing public education system.

To promote the expansion of high quality public school choice that is both equitable and publicly accountable, we will focus on three goals over the next two years:

1. Build a marketplace of education providers that is available to all students, provides a diversity of high-quality education options, and is publicly accountable. We will do this by proposing and advocating policies that allow more high-quality charter schools to enter the education marketplace, proposing and advocating policies that increase the supply of high-quality schools open to all students within existing school districts, and by informing policymakers and other change agents about the promises and risks of expanded choice in the public education system as well as the need to support policies that promote quality. For example, a forthcoming analysis of charter management organizations will look at the potential of nonprofit CMOs to expand and increase the supply of high-quality charter schools. And an examination of public school inter-district choice programs will look within the traditional school system to analyze the capacity of such programs to increase the overall quality of options for public school students.

2. Promote Education Sector’s values of equity and public accountability in choice policies. We will do this by reinforcing the importance of these values in all of our work and by highlighting the work of education providers that embody these values. For example, a forthcoming set of recommendations on expanding access to public school choice through the No Child Left Behind Act will point to the importance of an adequate supply of high quality school choices to any well-functioning choice system.

3. Explore the future of school choice in public education. We will do this by convening education providers, policymakers, and choice experts to discuss the best way to bring about high-quality public school choice in the years ahead, and by collecting data on the public awareness of and desire for public school options. We will, for example, sponsor a series of debates on the next generation of school choice.

Impact

We plan to monitor significant shifts in policy adoption and the general policy climate that reflect our ideas and recommendations. By promoting recommendations in Education Sector charter school policy briefs, we aim to see policy ideas reflected in state policies over the next few years. We expect our research on CMOs to reach national and state policymakers. We will look for our recommendations on the choice provisions in NCLB to be reflected in proposed changes in the next draft of the reauthorized law. And we will work to have our recommendations on how to improve public school choice programs reflected in state and district policies.