DOES SCHOOL CHOICE ACCELERATE RACIAL SEGREGATION?
Fiske and Ladd express concerns about racial segregation in their book. Recent studies in the United States, however, have found private schools are actually better racially integrated than public schools, as public schools rely on segregated housing patterns. Whites are typically concentrated in suburbs and minority populations concentrated in urban school systems. Public schools tend to be very segregated because they rely on these segregated housing patterns. Private schools have been found to be less racially segregated than public schools simply because they draw upon students from larger geographic areas. A major inhibitor of greater diversity in private schools is the difficulty of many parents to pay for both public school taxes and private school tuition. Ultimately, New Zealand has the means to prevent skimming in choice programs, and has already employed them. New Zealand initially chose not to make use of such tools, but promptly changed course. Choice reformers in the Unit
