The “Parenting Tax” of School Choice
The framework of school choice imposes a kind of tax, one paid in the time and effort that it imposes on many black parents.
For decades, when the topic of unequal public schools comes up, one of the main prescriptions politicians and policymakers have offered is “choice.” In a recent paper, the sociologists Angela Simms and Elizabeth Talbert explain one aspect of school choice that’s rarely part of these conversations: the “tax” in time and effort that it imposes on many black parents.
Simms and Talbert conducted interviews with black and white parents in the Cleveland area. Participants were chosen randomly from neighborhoods at a range of income levels. Of the white parents studied, 10 out of 15 sent all their children to their neighborhood schools. Simms and Talbert write that these parents “described their school decision-making process as requiring no significant effort.” Of the white parents who sent their kids to non-neighborhood schools, such as charter or magnet schools, four out of five lived in the city of Cleveland.
“In general, we find that White parents, regardless of income, tend to be satisfied with their neighborhood public schools, which are usually in predominantly White middle-class suburbs,” the authors write.
Among the 26 black parents, on the other hand, 20 sent at least one child to a “choice” school. As with white parents, families living in the city of Cleveland were more likely to use choice options, but even black parents in the suburbs were evenly split between choice and traditional routes.
While white families often chose to live in specific communities because they were known for having “good schools,” that option was often not available to black families—and not just for financial reasons. Many black parents worried that moving into “good,” whiter districts would take them away from their social support systems, which, due to historical segregation, tend to be in communities with “bad” local schools.
Simms and Talbert write that the black parents they spoke with were highly conversant in the CONTINUE READING: The “Parenting Tax” of School Choice | JSTOR Daily
