1. Choice Without Chance: The Reality of Quality Education Opportunities for Poor, Minority
Students in Sociodemographically Segregated Areas
Abstract
Poor, minority students in sociodemographically segregated areas like St. Louis City and St.
Louis County in Missouri are at a constant disadvantage when it comes to accessing quality
public school education. The “failure” of the Normandy School District and similar districts
across the country in fact illustrates what happens to education when a century of racist policies
and practices spatially separate families by race. School choice is the only policy option
consistently offered as a solution to the problem of failing neighborhood schools but, as is shown
in this paper, school choice has been tried and has failed a number of students; those who are
able to take advantage of school choice and attend a different district see little, if any,
improvement to their academic performance while students left behind in failing schools are only
being put at a further disadvantage. Education inequities arise when housing segregation by race
and class influences local public school resources, and while school choice is one intervention,
there are many policies, some of which are included as add-on policy recommendations here,
that could be used in conjunction to result in real change.