In the Twenty-First Century: School Choice, Charters, and Public School Competition

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Eliana

Analysis of twentieth-century U.S. school change highlights district consolidation and rising unionization, two forces that reduce local parent control and shape school competition. Policy improvement is argued to depend on developing new school-choice mechanisms such as vouchers, charters, and other institutions that counteract these pressures. The discussion contrasts open enrollment and charter schools, explains how incentives evolve as funding and decisions migrate toward states, and evaluates competitive effects and limitations, including risks of similarity across jurisdictions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Choice

Choice, Charters, and Public School Competition

Incentives and Outcomes

by Eric A.Hanushek When historians review the changesin schools over the twentieth century,two things are likely to stand out.Firstthere has been a dramatic consolidationof school districts,leaving fewer but sig-nificantly larger districts.Second,schools have become more unionized.Historians may not see the interaction ofthese two things,but it is just that inter-action that makes new forms of compe-tition among schools so important.Improving our schools in the twenty-first century is likely to rest on develop-ing forms of school choice—vouchers,charters,and other institutions—thatcounteract these two forces. School choice comes in a variety offorms ranging from deciding where tolive to home schooling.This Commen-tary contrasts two important forms ofpublic-school choice that have devel-oped:open enrollment programs andcharter schools. Choice In the twentieth century,the UnitedStates led the world's schooling trans-formation and went from a small,eliteschooling system to one that was signifi-cantly changed in breadth and depth.Universal schooling with later and laterschooling ages became the normthroughout the country. But with these positive changes cameothers that made the schools less acces-sible to the direct control of local par-ents.First.school districts consolidated.In 1937.there were 119,000 separatepublic school districts.Today,there arefewer than 15,000. Choice,Charters,and Public SchoolCompetition One important result of this consolidationis less choice in public schooling.With alimited number of larger districts,thedecision making and management ofschool districts effectively moves awayfrom the local population.Larger districtsalso mean that there are more diversepreferences for what the parents want intheir schools,and compromises must bemade across the various interests. Second,as districtsconsolidated,fund-ing also changed dramatically.In 1930less than z percent of revenues for ele-mentary and secondary schools camefrom the federal government,and lessthan one-fifth came from states,leavingover 80 percent to be raised locally.By2000,the local share was down to43 percent with both federal and stateshares rising.As states have becomemore prominent in the funding ofschools,they have also moved towardmore centralization of decisions aboutthe operations of the schools—withthe result that school decisions havefurther migrated away from the parentsand local voters and toward statebureaucracies. Ifthe parents directly control the fundingof the schools,parents can exert someinfluence about what the school does,simply because the schools realize thattheir support is directly related to pleas-ing the parents.But,with large anddiverse districts and with funding deci-sions made increasingly elsewhere,theincentives for schools to please theparents fall. Parents can ofcourse move to newschool districts,and their ability to doso can exert adegree of compeitive March 15,2006 In the last century,public schoolschanged in ways that dramaticallyreduced the control that parents haveover their local schools.Regaining thatcontrol is one key to improving thequality of our schools,and giving stu-dents a choice of schools is one way ofincreasing the influence that parentshave over the way schools are run.Several types of school choice havearisen in recent years,including mag-net and charter schools.But whenthese are reviewed in terms of out-comes and incentives,charter schoolsare found to have a much betterchance of providing the competitivepressure necessary to improve thequality of public schools. pressure on public schools.But thisview of shopping across alternativejurisdictions does have important limita-tions.For a variety of reasons,the publicschools might not look too diffierentfrom eachother.State restrictions,thelimited viewpoints of school personnel,and other things could lead schools to bequite similarin approach,curriculum,and goals.Job locations can also dra-matically limit the number of relevantschoo

FAQs

What two developments stand out when historians review twentieth-century school changes?

District consolidation and increased unionization are the two major developments highlighted, both affecting competition and parent control.

How does district consolidation affect public-school choice for parents?

Consolidation reduces choice by moving decision-making away from local populations, and it requires compromises across more diverse parent preferences.

Why are charters argued to create stronger competitive pressure than some alternatives?

Because, when reviewed by outcomes and incentives, charter schools are said to have a better chance of delivering the competitive pressure needed to improve public schools.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Eliana