TWO DECADES AGO, the sociologist James S. Coleman wrote that choice in education should be a two-way street: it would be better for everyone if students could choose their schools and schools could also choose their students. Schools, he wrote, would try hard to keep “the best students.” Parents and students would be able to attend schools “they find attractive and to remain in those schools.” Win-win. Indeed, this is how the system has always worked for private schools, colleges, and universities. But our assumptions tend to shift when it comes to public schools, which are theoretically supposed to take all who show up.
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