Giving Compass' Take:

· Writing for The Heritage Foundation, Lindsey Burke shares her call for universal school choice because where a student lives should not determine the quality of education he or she receives. Burke further explains that when children are assigned to failing schools based on their address, it puts everyone at a disadvantage and has life-long costs.

· What are the benefits of schools choice and how is it viewed by the public? Does school choice lead to a more equitable or unfair education system? 

· Read and learn more about the fight for school choice. 

What social institutions have the most immediate and strongest impact on a child’s development and well-being? According to researchers for the Pew Charitable Trust’s Economic Mobility Project, it’s the child’s family circumstances, with schools ranking as the second-most important factor.

In the U.S., family circumstances and schools are closely linked, because most cities and counties link schooling to housing. The extent to which families can select schools is largely determined by the extent to which they can afford to select their neighborhood.

This arrangement effectively limits the prospects of upward mobility for millions of children across the country.

In 2013, the real estate brokerage firm Redfin analyzed more than 400,000 home sales. It found that, on average, families paid $50 more per square foot for houses in highly rated school districts.

In one case, Redfin found a house priced $130,000 more than its “twin” (in terms of square footage and number of rooms) less than a mile away. The main difference? The first was in a highly rated school district; the other was not.

Although the Redfin study did not control for other potential confounding variables, its findings underscore what we all already know: housing choice is school choice.

Read the full article about school choice by Lindsey Burke at The Heritage Foundation.