Just Out of Reach? Unrestrained Supply, Constrained Demand, and Access to Effective Schools in and Around Detroit

Abstract

Research concerning family preferences for schooling indicates that they value proximity to home as much as academic quality when choosing schools. However, preferences for proximity likely represent inability to access schools farther away from home, especially for disadvantaged students. I test whether distance and district boundaries constrain access to high-performing and effective schools for Detroit students where families choose between intradistrict, interdistrict, and charter schools, as well as an assigned school. I employ a unique data set that includes enrollment records, addresses, and commute times for Detroit residents regardless of where they attend school. Results show that disadvantaged students have little access to the highest quality schools available, specifically those outside Detroit. However, students attend higher performing schools within Detroit.

Race, Geography, and School Choice Policy: A Critical Analysis of Detroit Students’ Suburban School Choices

“…The enrollment patterns of Detroit exiters highlight the salience of racial geography in school choice. Reflecting prior research on school choice in general and in Detroit specifically (e.g., Bell, 2009; Edwards, 2021), distance appears to be a significant limiting factor for Detroit exiters’ choices. Indeed, even the large majority of Detroit exiters who choose schools in bordering districts travel significantly farther than other students in Detroit and suburban districts.…”

“…When suburban districts are closer to a school district with a large Black residential population, they are more likely to enact restrictive enrollment policies; and these restrictions are associated with significantly lower levels of nonresident Black student enrollment (Lenhoff, 2020). In addition, while Detroit students (and especially Black Detroit students) who choose suburban schools are pushed by inequitable access to quality schools in Detroit and pulled toward schools with higher overall test scores (Lenhoff et al, 2020), far distances prevent them from enrolling in schools with the highest test scores (Edwards, 2021). 1 The present study builds on this prior research by contextualizing these policy arrangements and enrollment dynamics with theoretical insight and empirical evidence about the racialization of space and sociospatial dynamics of school choice.…”

Deurbanization and the Struggle to Sustain a Black Teaching Corps: Evidence From Michigan

“…This follows from Michigan’s predominant reliance on student-linked school funding and captures the net result of residential and interdistrict choice. For example, approximately 20% of Detroit school-age children attend a charter outside their catchment boundary (Edwards, 2020) and 13% of students statewide attend a nonresident TPS (Edwards, 2019). One may imagine a scenario where the causality is reversed—where the act of closing schools and removing teachers from neighborhoods leads to declining catchment enrollments when families choose noncatchment options.…”

Student Transportation in Choice-Rich Districts: Implementation Challenges and Responses

“…Districts spent over $24 billion on student transportation in the 2014-15 school year, accounting for about 8 percent of all public education expenditures (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES] 2019). Student transportation policies also have implications for students' access to the full range of educational opportunities ostensibly available to them, particularly in choice-rich environments (Teske, Fitzpatrick, and O'Brien 2009;Jochim et al 2014;Denice and Gross 2016;Blagg et al 2017;Edwards 2021). Yet, policies governing the provision of student transportation vary widely across states and localities, and there is significant heterogeneity within the charter sector in terms of transportation requirements and offerings (Blagg et al 2017;McShane and Shaw 2020).…”

“…There is growing evidence about the significance of student transportation for families' school choices and for school choice systems to function equitably (Teske, Fitzpatrick, and O'Brien 2009;Jochim et al 2014;Denice and Gross 2016;Blagg et al 2017;Hamlin 2018;Sattin-Bajaj 2018;Edwards 2021;Trajkovski, Zabel, and Schwartz 2021). Therefore, policy makers and administrators working in places with expansive school choice offerings would benefit from knowing more about what it means to implement student transportation policy, the obstacles associated with providing efficient and equitable transportation services, and how education officials are responding to the challenges of managing student transportation in choice-rich cities.…”