Exploring the Tension Between Centralized Student Transportation and School Autonomy in the Context of School Choice

• In Event: Privilege, Access, Privatization, and Equity in School Choice Environments

Abstract

Accountability, market-based competition, and autonomy are inextricably linked as policy mechanisms in charter school law and are therefore central to charter schools’ identities and operation. In this paper, we take up questions about charter school autonomy by examining the how charter actors in diverse governance, organizational, geographic, district, and city contexts perceive the trade-offs between centralized versus decentralized transportation and identifying the factors that explain differences in their perceptions across these contexts. Drawing primarily on data from 26 interviews conducted with representatives from three school choice-rich cities with diverse transportation policies and public transit infrastructures, we find wide variation in participants’ appetite for centralized transportation, with the greatest degree of similarity occurring at the city-level rather than by sector.

Authors

• Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Ayesha Hashim, NWEA