Essays on Public School Choice and Inequality

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three papers. In each paper, I use applied econometric methods to study the implications of public school choice policies. The findings offer insights about how to improve upon existing school choice models so that these policies are more likely to mitigate rather than exacerbate existing inequalities in our school system. The first paper estimates the impact of public school choice on neighborhood composition and segregation. Public school choice decouples neighborhoods from schools, changing longstanding incentives for families deciding where to live. In this paper, I find that families strategically sort across and within neighborhoods in response to school choice, leading to a reduction in income segregation in neighborhoods with choice relative to neighborhoods without choice. The empirical results suggest that certain types of school choice policies could contribute to the voluntary creation of more mixed-income neighborhoods, but the wealthiest families may decide to leave these areas entirely. The second paper estimates the effect of winning a public school choice lottery on public school enrollment. I find that students who do not get assigned to their top choice school are 15 percentage points more likely to leave the public school system entirely than those who do get an offer at their top choice. This effect is driven by higher-income students who are more likely to be able to afford private schools. These effects are important to understand as districts undergo efforts to expand access to high quality schools by increasing participation in school choice programs, while seeking to maintain district enrollment. The third paper explores the relationship between school funding inequality and school choice, interrogating the common criticism that magnet and charter schools drain traditional public schools of much needed resources. I do not find evidence consistent with this concern. Instead, I find that funding inequality across schools within a district is largely driven by schools that serve student populations with specialized needs—like alternative schools or schools that have a higher proportion of students requiring special education services. Funding disparities that are, in other words, motivated by efforts to increase equity.