The Role Of (School) Choice in the Promotion of Healthy Learning Communities

Much of the literature on virtues or character development in education focuses on the role of educators and parents. Rightfully so; parents and educators must work in common cause in the moral development of children. However, little attention has been given to the role that school systems play in fostering positive relationships and ethical learning communities. By school systems I mean, the formal structures that determine how students are assigned to or choose to be at a particular school. It may well be that structural features of a system lend themselves more or less to creating a healthy educational community where virtues and character formation can take a more prominent form. This article focuses on what it regards as a key but neglected systemic feature of an educational system: whether students are assigned to a school by virtue of their geographical residence or by a family’s free choice. This paper examines one key question: would the systemic structures of a public education system built on principles of pluralism, choice, and free association do more to promote healthy learning communities than a system that relies on residential assignment to schools?