ABSTRACT
Th is chapter explores how and why parents choose (or choose not to choose) magnet schools. As Henig (1994) notes, magnet schools were fi rst established in the 1970s and fl ourished throughout the 1980s as a mechanism designed to improve racial balance in schools. Th e idea was simple and invoked in both voluntary and court-ordered desegregation plans: attract families from across an array of neighborhoods and racial backgrounds by developing a distinctive, thematic curriculum such as math/science or the arts, or an instructional program such as Montessori or Paideia. Th ese expanded school programs and resources, coupled with voluntary parental choice mechanisms, produced “managed” racial balance in magnet schools across the nation (Blank, Levine, & Steel, 1996). Today, magnet schools enroll more students than any other public choice model, including charter schools.1
