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| J. Celeste Lay www.jcelestelay.com. |
In the last 20
years, school choice options have proliferated in many cities and states. No
city exemplifies this move to school choice more than New Orleans. In the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, school reformers dismantled the
low-performing school district and replaced it primarily with autonomous
charter schools. As of 2014, over 90% of its public school students were in a
charter school – the highest proportion for a major city in the nation. In New
Orleans, there are no default neighborhood schools, meaning that parents must
apply for admission and select a school for their children.
In this system,
the information needs are high so that parents can understand the range of
options and how to effectively express their preferences in a new and
ever-changing choice process. This paper examines not only which sources of
information parents are most reliant on, but also whether those who rely on
more objective sources are more satisfied with their choices and more likely to
enroll their children in higher performing schools than those who rely on
sources with inherent biases
