This chapter asks, what are we learning about the social organization and effects of decentralized reforms? These initiatives, proliferating over the past quarter century, include vouchers and faith in private schools, charter schools, magnet and cross-town transfer efforts, neighborhood governance, and the spread of early education via mixed markets. In turn, the expanding fi eld of policy research-focusing on how parental “choice” unfolds and the human-scale institutions that respond-remains quite young. Theoretical accounts abound, each alleging how decentralized action is supposed to energize parents, kids, and educators. The empirical haze is just beginning to lift when it comes to observing the social and economic mechanisms that actually kick in, under what local conditions, and benefi ting which children and families.