Linked Fates: How the Availability of School Choice Shapes School and Neighborhood Demographic Change

• In Event: Community Perspectives on School Desegregation and Integration: School Choice, Housing Mobility, and Community Engagement

Abstract

The high levels of racial segregation in U.S. schools and neighborhoods are a direct result of policies that link these two contexts together with residence-based school assignment, yet school choice has complicated this landscape. Using longitudinal and spatial data on the racial composition of nearly 3,000 schools and their neighborhoods, I examine how the availability of nearby charter and private schools shapes White population decline between 2000 and 2010. I find that growth in nearby charter schools is positively associated with White population decline, such that neighborhoods with more charter schools lose more White children both in schools and neighborhoods. However, I also find that private schools are associated with lower White population decline from neighborhoods, as well as schools through an indirect effect on neighborhood change.

Author

• Elly M Field, Brown University
  Presenting Author