Parental School Choice in Compulsory Education

Abstract

 School choice policy is designed to expand parents' options. In theory, under the conventional public school system, parents are only able to choose from either the neighborhood school or a private school, but with a school choice policy, they can select from a wider array of options: the default neighborhood school, a private school, or a non-default public school within the district. Theories suggest that school choice policy would in fact exacerbate social stratification and decrease diversity within schools. However, empirical evidence is scarce, especially in the Japanese context. Using a unique dataset of junior high school students' parents in two districts of Tokyo, the present study examines the relationship between parents' school choice behavior and their socioeconomic status (SES), as well as their attitude toward their children's education. The Hausman test shows that the structure of parents' school choice is non-hierarchical. As well, a multinomial logit model estimating parental choice based on an array of decision factors shows that choosing private or non-default public schools is associated with higher parental SES and higher educational aspirations for their child. Despite limited generalizability, the study has some important implications as to the potential challenges of school choice policy in solving the issue of the gap in the quality of public education services.