Reply to Is Charter Neighborhood Preference a good idea?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Again, it cannot be said enough:  IT IS NOT A POPULARITY CONTEST.  Each school is different and has different offerings.  What is interesting to one family won't be interesting to the next.  People need to do their research on which school is the best fit for their kid's interests and capabilities.  All of this "neighborhood preference" and "one lottery" talk really only serves to obfuscate and cloud the whole purpose of having diversity and school choices.[/quote]

Isn't the whole point of school choice in essence a popularity contest? Parents make the best choice for their family, schools try to attract students, and the schools that are successful are rewarded with resources?  And the ones that fail to attract students either have to up their game or close? The problem in DC right now is that the supply of desirable seats at schools is so low that almost nobody has a meaningful choice. We currently have de facto rationing, where the questions about how to most fairly and efficiently allocate the limited number of quality seats overwhelm any ability to place each child in the school that's right for him. We're miles away from the point where parents can weigh competing schools and pick the one that's right for their child, because everyone is concentrating on just getting in somewhere.

In this atmosphere school choice is essentially broken, because the market isn't sending signals. If you truly believe in school choice, what you would want to do is create more choices that appeal to more families, until you get to the point where almost everyone is going to a school that they picked because it was right for them. (Not necessarily their number one pick, but one they want.) The way to get to that point is to use the signals that parents send when they rank their choices, and then use that information to allocate resources in a way that creates more options that appeal to more families.

Frankly, I think if there were sufficient choice a neighborhood preference would be unnecessary. If there were lots of good choices, spread throughout the city, most people would prefer to go to a good school nearby rather than the absolute best school. The question boils down to whether neighborhood preference is something that gets us closer to the point of having quality choices for all, or just perpetuates the shortage and inequality that exists currently.[/quote]

I think you are still missing the point - once again, schools vary in terms of offerings and capabilities - some are stronger in athletics, some are stronger in the arts, some are stronger in STEM and so on.   Why would you send your STEM-loving kid to a school that is weak on STEM, but "popular" because of its athletics program?  That makes no sense.  If someone is interested in "choice" purely as a function of popularity as opposed to WHAT MAKES SENSE FOR THEIR KID they are completely missing the point.  And, with so many parents that seem clueless and who don't seem to be doing their homework on schools other than just a superficial pass at "popularity" or taking a scattershot shotgun approach at applying to a whole slew of schools and seeing where they get in, it's no wonder the lottery system is so clogged, and it's no wonder why there's so much "september shuffle" et cetera.[/quote]

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