School Districts as Invasive Actors in a Market School Choice Environment

Abstract

In the classic school choice market model, school districts are conceived as exerting competitive pressure on each other by improving conditions in the schools and programs within their boundaries. In this article, we examine an invasive action where a school district increased student enrollment by actively bussing students from within another district’s boundaries (bussing district), an invasive action that deviates from the classic school choice market model. In our focused analysis of three Phoenix elementary districts using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the bussing district realized a “bump” of 44.7 students on average per school, after controlling for distance and school quality, via transporting students directly from within its neighbor district’s boundaries. The findings may portend more aggressive actions that mirror the market behaviors of charter schools as districts face declining student enrollment counts due to the proliferation of market reforms that increase competition.