A bit of both, probably. But the school choice movement is largely being driven by wealthy people who could afford private schools or homeschooling without any need to destroy public education.

Selection bias a real problem with charters and privates. We've already selected for "parents who give a shit". And frequently for "no IEP or other learning disability". So, kids who are, at worst, average intellect with parents who care enough to fill out some paperwork and drive them to school - those kids are going to succeed almost anywhere.

And I totally understand the desire to get your own children a high quality education. That's a large part of why I moved back to Fairfax County. But, I also feel strongly that strong public schools are a requirement for a healthy society.

Maybe some private schools don't admit IEP students, but I've seen many that do. Depending on the state and other factors, oftentimes the district is required to provide IEP related resources to private schools that need them.

I agree, that we should have good public schools. I feel they do get written off by many of the school choice proposals. I think there could be more support if pairing public school improvements with school choice. If we can improve the public schools to the point of being attractive, then it wouldn't matter if school choice was a thing. It's definitely an unusual paradigm where there is a public option with many people being forced to it for financial reasons, yet the institution is largely unwilling to compete with private offerings.

> Selection bias a real problem with charters and privates.

Charter schools are frequently oversubscribed, and admit students via lottery. This makes it pretty easy to run randomized tests that aren't affected by selection bias.

> Charter schools are frequently oversubscribed, and admit students via lottery. This makes it pretty easy to run randomized tests that aren't affected by selection bias.

No, it does not, because the following sources of selection bias exist.

(1) Charters select for actively involved parents, because they are not the default-assigned by-residence public schools, and an active choice is necessary to get into the pool,

(2) Charters, because they are not scaled to only take the actively-choosing parents from the catchment area of a typical district school, select for parents with greater means who are able to make a longer travel to the school for drop off, pickup, and other necessary interactions.

(3) There are often biases in the lottery system; even something as simple as giving favorable consideration for having a sibling already in the school reinforces the impact of other biases.

Most of the lotteries aren't automatic entry, etc. You still need a parent to fill out the forms and stuff. Some even rely on GPA, diversity metrics, or entrance essays. There's definitely selection bias, you just encounter it prior to the lottery drawing (or other selection process).

There’s still bias. Parent has to care. Transport is often an issue. And the school usually gets to reject children with any sort of disability or other negative trait.