There can be little doubt that America is providing families with greater choice in what schools their children should attend. As noted by White and Schwartz (2005), today families can choose between district public schools, magnet schools, charter schools, voucher plans, or private schools. Parents can even home school their children should they decide to do so.
According to Wolfe (2003), the diversity of selection has shifted the nature of public debate. A few decades ago, Wolfe states, the debate was about whether parents should be given any choice whereas in the coming decades, it is going to be about how much choice to give them. Is their any limit? Should there be limits? Are parents more qualified than anybody else is to decide where to send their children, or are they potential victims who will utilize choice to make bad decisions about their children's education? Should there be some educational body that helps and guides parents in their choice? All of these will increasingly be important questions for future debate as diversity of choices increase.
A second element of future debates about education, according to Walberg (2007), is going to be about the effects of growing competition in educational provision between the diverse options presented to families. In this regard, Walberg (2007) says that future debates are doing to center on whether the breath of choice given to parents might not lead to some parents making better decisions than others and, as a result, an equity failure and a return to some forms of segregation. Educators are going to increasingly be asking whether choices should be restricted to make sure that families choose schools that are balanced in terms of race, gender, and socioeconomic background.
Walberg, H. (2007). School choice: The findings. Washington, DC: The Cato Institute.
White, T., & Schwartz, I. (2005). Privatization, and education, charter schools and v
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