Choice, competition and segregation: an empirical analysis of a New Zealand secondary school market, 1990‐93

The impact of the marketization of education on choice and school intakes in ‘Greencity’, New Zealand is examined. We report a study of a ‘lived’ market, drawing on both qualitative analyses of the enrolment patterns of almost 9000 secondary school students as well as interviews with school principals. The removal of zoning in Greencity provided more choice only to a small group of families. By enlarging the already sizeable group of higher socio‐economic students bypassing their local schools, choice intensified socio‐economic segregation between schools. Market reforms were thus found to have a differential impact on schools with some working‐class schools entering a spiral of decline while higher socio‐economic status schools were relatively unaffected. The responses of schools to the market varied considerably in ways that were related to their initial market position, their ability to change the formal rules of the market and the actions of neighbouring schools. The authors suggest that some state intervention is necessary to moderate the effects of the market.