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Choice in American education remains one of the more important and certainly more controversial issues in education reform movements. This paper analyzes two types of choice programs located in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, metropolitan area. Numerous research issues are involved in the debates over educational choice. Two of the most important sets of issues are: (1) Who chooses and why? and, (2) With what effects on educational outcomes? This paper is concerned with the first set of questions. The theme of the paper is that who chooses is a function of the type and design of the choice program itself. Although there are some similarities in the characteristics of students and families between the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (a private-school voucher program) and the Chapter 220 program (an interdistrict public school choice program), the contrasts are sharp and consistent across key variables. That result may not be welcomed by those seeking simple and decisive conclusions concerning some general theory of educational choice. We, however, view it somewhat positively because the message is that policymakers have the ability to create different choice programs to address different problems with appropriate effects on diverse student populations.
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