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Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools edited by Annette Lareau and Kimberly Goyette New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2014. 328 pp. $49.95 (paperback).
In the summer of 2007, a fifty-four-year-old African American health-care worker named Ms. Carter sat down with a researcher on Chicago's South Side and spoke candidly about her experience trying to enroll her foster daughter, Jenice, in the high school of her choice. After approaching Jenice's school counselor to ask for assistance, exploring the possibility of her locally zoned school, "Neighborhood," as well as several charter and traditional public schools, and finally completing applications, Ms. Carter waited anxiously to see where Jenice would be admitted.
But we didn't hear from anybody. Nobody but Neighborhood. And when my [older] daughter opened the letter up, [she] called me and she say "Guess what? . . . Jenice [is] going to Neighborhood." And I was very disappointed. I was very disappointed. Because I had never heard any good stuff about Neighborhood, you know . . . Now who made that decision? And why didn't we hear from Clarion [High School]? And why didn't we hear from the other schools that she put down? Because we were waiting for a decision to say that 1 accepted the child or I didn't accept the child, you know what I'm saying? . . . So, what? They send black kids where they want to send them? Why did Neighborhood come up and we can't hear from any other schools? 1 didn't like the process ... I don't think I would've chose that school, just up and chose that school, no. Because, like I said, it was chosen, (p. 253)
Much of Ms. Carter's narrative might sound familiar to those versed in the language of "school choice." Rather than assuming that her local school would provide the highest-quality education, she engaged with several sources of information before deciding on the school options that seemed most appropriate for her daughter. Yet, her reaction should be startling to those who advocate for choice-based school assignment. Given her disappointment in the neighborhood school to which Jenice was ultimately assigned, the opacity of the process ("Now who made that decision?"), and her sense of injustice at with the outcome ("They send black kids where they...