This book consists of nine papers that were originally delivered at the First Annual International Conference on Magnet Schools, which was held in Dallas in March 1977. In addition to discussing the rationale for magnet schools and the history of their development, the various papers examine how to initiate and plan a magnet schools program, how…

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential role of selected fiscal incentives in attempting to achieve greater racial and socioeconomic integration through open enrollment programs. Three premises underlie this paper: first, that past experience with district wide unrestricted (color-blind) open enrollment plans indicate that this…

This report chronicles the East Hartford, Connecticut, Parents' Choice Project--an education voucher plan. The plan was intended to dovetail with the school system's already-existing open enrollment policy and was to include the area's private and parochial schools, as well as all the public schools. The feasibility and implementation studies…

Pioneer Institute recently organized a roundtable in which school officials discussed their experiences with inter-district public school choice. The participants exchanged views on the current state of the choice program in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts inter-district school choice program allows parents to enroll their children at schools in…

This paper explores issues surrounding parental choice of schools. The administration of President George Bush has presented parental choice as a cornerstone of its proposed "America 2000 Excellence in Education Act." Educational advocates are concerned that emphasis on choice as a key moving force for school reform falls short of the…

The opinions of educators who would be affected by school-choice and voucher plans were studied in a survey of 144 teachers (84 percent female) from 6 elementary public schools in Chicago (Illinois). Survey questions were derived from an extensive review of the literature. Seventy-seven percent of teachers agreed with interdistrict choice, but…

This monograph analyzes trends in American educational philosophy and history in its proposal to implement an all-public statewide school voucher system. Following an introduction, section 1, "Alternative Voucher Systems," discusses three concepts: universal unregulated vouchers, favored by Milton Friedman; regulated compensatory…

Described in this report are the problems faced by the St. Louis public schools. Financing difficulties, the poverty of about 70 percent of public school pupils, the inadequacy of state aid, the shortage of well-qualified teachers, the exodus of whites to the suburbs, and the concentration of Negroes in the inner city are some of the issues which…