ABSTRACT
As the restructuring movement looks in the direction of decentralization, schools can expect to take more authority in administering the quality of its practices. Facing a range of educational programs, parents will enjoy the freedom to choose a school that is appropriate for their children’s learning. Choice empowers parents and schools and challenges them to be more creative in defining what educational program will benefit the children it serves. While the assumption that market competition will improve schools is unproven, there is substantial data to suggest that choice and other school privatization enterprises involve parents in an interactive partnership. A decentralized choice plan creates school flexibility and accountability and provides alternatives for parents. In this era of school reform, a strategy of choice combined with other advantages associated with privatization, can revitalize schools and deregulate the monopolistic bureaucracy of public schools. Choice can no longer be dismissed as a myth or unattainable for public schools.
