Does school choice lead to more integrated schools?
Yes. According to researcher Jay P. Greene, “analyses of a national sample of 12th graders collected by the U.S. Department of Education show that private school students are more likely to be in racially mixed classes than are public school students.” In addition, Greene and Nicole Mellow point out that 63 percent of private school students observed in a lunchroom setting (where children could choose where to sit) were sitting in an integrated setting, compared to 49.7 percent of public school students. The voucher program in Cleveland proves this point. Almost 20 percent of voucher recipients attend private schools that resemble the racial composition of the Cleveland metropolitan area, while only 5.2 percent of children in public schools are in similarly integrated schools. Also, 60.7 percent of public school students in the Cleveland metropolitan area attend schools that have either more than 90 percent white enrollment or fewer than 10 percent white enrollment. Conclusion: student
