The Pros and Cons of School Choice

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Benefits and Disadvantages of School Choice

The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the benefits and drawbacks of school choice with respect to the impact on the students involved in the process. Over the years, school vouchers, school choice and charter schools have been grouped into one umbrella category known as school choice. The three types of school choice are very different yet very much the same and each topic will be discussed in depth and analyzed with examples and opinions from other authors. Overall, there have always been experts with both positive and negative remarks about the issues surrounding school choice.

School Choice

School choice is one subgroup under the umbrella heading School Choice; however, it is only one of the very important subcategories in that group. School choice is the broadest form of all the categories and can be defined as “the option of choosing a public school beyond neighborhood boundaries” (Howe, Eisenhart and Betebenner, 2002). School choice, as a subgroup, is closely aligned with school vouchers, often overlapping. Being both criticized and acclaimed, school choice has benefits and drawbacks. According to Hanna Skandera and Richard Sousa, authors of School Choice: the Evidence Comes In, critics go about disapproving school choice in two ways. The first way they disapprove is by saying only the best, brightest students will benefit from the ability to choose schools, and the underprivileged students will continue to falter.

The second criticism states the students that are left behind will cause problems at the schools in which they remain. The resources will be strained and the teachers will not be able to meet the needs of all the students left behi...

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...ts and individual families’ stories relating to school choice and how they are affected. The website also includes links to other websites that are helpful on the topic of school choice.

Furaselli, L.D. (2002, September/October). Charter schools implications for teachers and administrators. Clearing House, 76 (1), 20. November 25, 2002 from Academic Search Premier/EBSCO database.

A peer reviewed article that includes a wealth of information about charter schools including who is involved, who is affected and how. The article starts with the very basics about charter schools and continues throughout the entire process of explaining them to the readers

Morehead, P.D., (2001). The new american roget’s college thesaurus: In dictionary form. (3rd ed.). New York: Signet.

An educational thesaurus, it is in dictionary form and includes many useful words.

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