Choosing Inequality
How School Choice Deepens Racial Disparities in an Urban, Diversifying District
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9729695 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kenneth R French (0000-0002-3721-8025, Hope College, Holland, MI, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Pages | 902-922 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Education and Urban Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-1245 • E-ISSN: 1552-3535 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00131245251349149 |
| OpenAlex | W4412115846 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 22 |
This study examines parental decision-making in a Metro Detroit school district undergoing integration efforts, focusing on why families choose to stay or leave. The findings suggest notable racial disparities: Black families often left involuntarily due to misleading choice policies, while White families chose to leave, citing concerns about declining academic quality and a perceived lack of diversity—both of which reinforced anti-Black stereotypes in their decision-making. Although school choice policies aim to address inequities and improve education opportunities for all families, this study illuminates how choice policy can deepen racial inequities and reinforce race-based discrimination. These results highlight the critical need to examine how school choice policies impact families differently across racial lines and how these policies can inadvertently perpetuate systemic racism in schools
Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnic group · Inequality · Race (biology · Racial bias · Racial composition · Racial differences · Racism · Sociology · Gender Studies · Higher Education Research Studies · Psychology · School Choice and Performance · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
When Middle-Class Parents Choose Urban Schools
The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers
The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit
Buying Homes, Buying Schools
Opportunity Hoarding in School Choice Contexts
Fleeing school choice? Resident student exit from suburban school districts
Inequality in the Promised Land
School Choice Policies and Racial Segregation
All Choices Created Equal? The Role of Choice Sets in the Selection of Schools
Structural constraints and the school choice strategies of black American middle-class parents
I Wanted Diversity, But Not So Much”
School Selection as a Process
The Rules of the Game and the Uncertain Transmission of Advantage
School Racial Composition and Parental Choice
The Evolution of the New Black Middle Class
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |