A Think Twice Review of:

Review of Integrating Housing and Education Solutions to Reduce Segregation and Drive School Equity and When Good Parents Go to Jail: The Criminalization of Address Sharing in Public Education

Think Twice - Nov 14, 2023

Publisher/Think Tank - Urban Institute | Available to All

Author(s) - Megan Gallagher, Rachel Lamb, Alexa Kort, and James Carter | Tim DeRoche, Hailly T.N. Korman, and Harold Hinds

The first report, Integrating Housing and Education Solutions to Reduce Segregation and Drive School Equity, specifically focuses on inequitable school resources and educational outcomes tied to residential and school segregation. The second report, When Good Parents Go to Jail: The Criminalization of Address Sharing in Public Education, similarly locates school and residential boundaries as drivers of educational inequities.

Reviewer(s) - Andrene J. Castro, Virginia Commonwealth University

Among the recommendations of both reports are calls for increased use of one or more types of school choice-but superficially makes sense given that these policies de-link residence and school assignment. The Urban Institute report focuses on magnet schools and charter schools, with protections in place to overcome transportation and admissions obstacles. The Available to All report simply recommends expanding open enrollment. Professor Castro warns readers that both reports fail in this regard to meaningfully wrestle with the research base that finds most forms of school choice adding to-rather than alleviating-segregation. She points to forms of controlled choice as deserving consideration.