SCHOOL CHOICE AND SOCIAL CONTROVERSY:  
POLITICS, POLICY, AND LAW

     Giving parents the right to choose the schools their children attend is an increasingly popular idea, both in practice and in public opinion.  So far, the debate has centered primarily on whether school choice is a threat or an opportunity, but relatively little has been discussed about the legal and policy issues surrounding the subject.  What lies ahead for the financing of elementary and secondary education in America if the schools that many children attend are not traditional local public schools?  If there is a demand for schools of choice, will these choice schools just spring up?  If not, can policy interventions overcome the obstacles to their creation?  Will the teachers in those schools be represented by unions?  Are vouchers constitutional, and, if so, how might they change the status of private schools?  How compatible is school choice with racial justice?

     SCHOOL CHOICE AND SOCIAL CONTROVERSY: POLITICS, POLICY, AND LAW an important new volume edited by two distinguished legal and public policy scholars, goes beyond debating the merits of school choice to address matters of policy, politics, and law that are typically ignored in other books and debates over school choice.  The book provides analysis designed to be helpful to those on all sides of the school choice debate, as well as to those charged with designing and implementing school choice programs.

     SCHOOL CHOICE AND SOCIAL CONTROVERSY begins with a discussion of the types and extent of school choice, what is known about its consequences, and how politics has influenced its development.  It then focuses on three important public policy issues:  how school choice can revolutionize the way schools are financed, what policy interventions are necessary to increase the supply of choice schools, and how choice programs can be held accountable to parents and the state without undermining institutional autonomy.

     Much of the book addresses significant legal issues:  whether choice schools will be required to observe rights generally recognized in traditional public schools, how the religion and speech clauses of the First Amendment may affect the participation of religious schools in choice programs, whether school choice will enhance or aggravate opportunities for racial justice, the implications of choice for teacher unions and collective bargaining, and whether children with disabilities will be accommodated under federal disability law.  Through the book, the authors offer recommendations for public policy development.

Contributors

Robert C. Bulman, University of California, Berkeley
William G. Buss, University of Iowa College of Law
Jesse H. Choper, University of California School of Law, Berkeley
Jeffrey R. Henig, George Washington University
Paul T. Hill, University of Washington
David L. Kirp, University of California, Berkeley
Betsy Levin, Washington, D.C.
Robert M. O'Neil, University of Virginia School of Law
Laura F. Rothstein, University of Houston Law Center

Editors

Stephen D. Sugarman is Agnes Roddy Robb Professor Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
Frank R. Kemerer is Regents Professor and director of the Center for the Study of Education Reform at the University of North Texas.

School Choice and Social Controversy: Politics, Policy, and Law
Stephen D. Sugarman and Frank R. Kemerer, eds.
Published January 2000
Brookings Institution Press
6" x 9" 364 pages Cloth, $49.95 (ISBN 0-8157-8276-4)  Paper, $19.95 (ISBN 0-8157-8275-6)