The Potential of Interdistrict School Choice

By Richard D. Kahlenberg

Originally, one of the more talked-about provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act was one that gave students in “failing” Title I schools the right to attend a better-performing public school within their district. Many conservatives supported the provision as a way of promoting competition among schools. Meanwhile, some liberals supported the idea as a way of liberating low-income students from segregated high-poverty schools.

Today, the public-school-choice provision is widely seen as an example of one of the ways in which NCLB is “broken.” Very few eligible students—fewer than 2 percent—take advantage of public school choice under NCLB, and the rates are even lower among African-American and Hispanic students than white students. Some believe that low transfer rates suggest that parents want neighborhood schools, even if those schools are weak. In a Washington Post op-ed essay on Jan. 3, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan criticized “federally dictated ... school-transfer options” as doing little good. Conservatives remain more supportive of choice for students stuck in failing schools, but want to expand the right of transfer to include private school options.

But there is a better way to fix the NCLB transfer provision than privatization. New research from the Century Foundation suggests that the right to transfer within the public school system should be altered to give meaningful access to high-performing schools across district lines and provide powerful financial incentives to receiving districts. The newly released Century Foundation research, conducted by Meredith Richards, Kori Stroub, and Jennifer Holme of the University of Texas at Austin, suggests that parents of students in low-performing schools may fail to utilize transfer rights not because they are necessarily satisfied with their local schools, but because other schools within the district...