In Chapter 7, Ravitch begins the chapter by discussing the role of private schools when she was a child. She points out that private schools were very rare and very selective in her hometown of Houston, Texas, and she even claims that she was rejected by one of the schools because the founder “didn’t like Jews.” She said the Houston public schools remained segregated even after the Brown vs. Board decision, and anyone who spoke up and tried to implement the new integration laws was “called a communist and a pinko.” Southern schools responded to intense pressure from the Supreme Court to integrate with “freedom of choice,” which allowed students to enroll in any public school that they wanted to. Thus, white students remained in all-white schools and black …show more content…
In the early 1990’s, advocates of the choice movement “campaigned to persuade state legislatures to pass laws authorizing charter schools.” This paved the way for the emergence of three versions of school choice institutions; charter schools (which were by far the most popular), voucher schools, and privately managed schools. All of these schools received public funds to educate students but were not considered regular public schools and were not run by government agencies. Definition of Voucher schools are schools that may or may not be religious in nature, privately managed schools are basically public schools that an outside entity operates under contract, and also charter schools are created when an organization obtains a charter from a state-authorized agency and typically have longer hours and more dedicated teachers and students who are willing to improve their selves. The main theory of the choice movement was to increase competition between private and public schools. The main idea of the choice movement was to improve the education system in