Do Public School Choice Policies Segregate Schools? Dynamic Effects in Michigan

Inter-district choice has the potential to exacerbate or alleviate between-district segregation-an increasingly pervasive form of U.S. school segregation-by allowing students to attend schools in districts where they do not reside. Prior research concentrates on the effects of charter schooling on segregation within districts and counties. We use longitudinal enrollment and demographic data from Michigan to examine the impacts of both inter-district and charter school choice on racial and economic segregation within and between districts in a single setting. We estimate these effects by leveraging between-grade differences in choice use within school systems and years. We confirm findings from previous research that increases in charter school enrollment increase within-district racial and economic segregation. We also find that the effects of inter-district choice on both within- and between-district segregation vary with the presence of charter schools.