Parental Choice of Schools and Social Stratification in Education: The Paradox of Detroit

Within the contexts of families and school districts, we investigate the effect of parental choice of schools on social stratification in education. We focus on Detroit, one of the few U.S. cities without a major choice plan (1991). Using multilevel methods to analyze data from 710 household heads in 45 Detroit-area school districts, results showed that minority and disadvantaged respondents, especially from the city, favor choice. We concluded that access to low-quality schools—measured either by respondents' perceptions or resource levels for school districts-motivates positive opinions toward choice. We discuss the potential effects on the Detroit public schools of an interdistrict choice plan, suggesting that choice would further stratify an already highly inequitable distribution of social, economic, and academic resources around education in the Detroit area. We question the individualistic premise undergirding arguments favoring choice.