ABSTRACT
Competition fosters performance. This is the credo of proponents of marketoriented education policies who point out that enhancing the possibilities to choose between different schools will create competition among schools, which, in turn, will lead to overall improvement in student achievement. However, competition may also enhance inequity: This is the concern of opponents of school choice, who fear that segregation will increase, leaving behind disadvantaged students while students from better-informed and better-off families alone profi t, and popular schools have the possibility to cream-skim their clientele.
