Charter schools, choice, and distributive justice: What evidence do we need?

Abstract

This article looks at charter schools from the perspective of distributive justice. It suggests three principles of distributive justice that should be satisfied by schools: the adequacy principle, the equity principle, and the communicative principle. It also sketches the justice argument for charter schools and uses the three principles to examine it. The focus of the article concerns the kinds of evidence required to decide if charter schools promote distributive justice. It argues that a focus on distributive justice helps to formulate a suitably broad view of what evidence is required that serves as a corrective to the excessive emphasis on test scores that characterizes much of the empirical work on school reform. The article also considers the claim that charter schools are more effective than other public schools because they create competition. It argues that an alternative explanation of their (alleged) success is that they are more communal. © 2010, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.