Prominent journalist, academic, and anti-racism activist Nikole Hannah-Jones recently wrote a controversial New York Times article, in which she expresses regret for her and her husband's decision to place her daughter in underperforming majority-Black public schools in New York City.
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she → write → City
Hannah-Jones hoped that putting her daughter there would help improve education for disadvantaged minority children, as her family's wealth and skills as political activists might stimulate reforms.
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wealth → hop → reforms
Instead, her daughter ended up bitterly bemoaning the poor quality of the education she got, and Hannah-Jones' well-meaning efforts to improve the public schools she attended accomplished very little.
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she → end → little
Eventually, at her daughter's request, Hannah-Jones acknowledged error, and sent her daughter to a higher-quality selective high school.
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Jones → acknowledge → school
Although she does not seem to recognize it, the best way to help students from less advantaged families than her own is to expand exit and choice opportunities, for them.
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way → seem → them
That is what social science shows, even though Hannah-Jones still doesn't fully acknowledge it.
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Jones → show → it
Her story also resonated with me because of my own experience as both a struggling student and (later) a parent.
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story → resonate → student
That experience also highlights the value of exit rights and choice, even if in a slightly different way.
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experience → highlight → way
While I think Hannah-Jones hasn't fully drawn the right lessons from her experience, I commend her for her willingness to acknowledge error.
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I → think → error
Few public intellectuals do that, and especially not on issues close to the heart of their ideological and personal commitments, as this one is for her.
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one → do → her
Exit vs. Voice
Hannah-Jones initial decision to send her daughter to a poorly performing public schools was motivated by an argument associated with the great economist Albert Hirschman (though I don't know if that's where she got the idea).
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she → send → idea
In his classic work, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States, Hirschman argued that exit rights can be harmful if it leads people to leave a flawed institution that they could instead stay and successfully reform using "voice."
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they → decline → voice
He specifically applied this to the issue of school choice, arguing that the most savvy and politically influential parents might take their kids out of badly-performing schools, instead of successfully reforming them.
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parents → apply → them
In my book Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom, I outlined some key limitations of Hirschman's argument.
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I → move → argument
I summarize my key points here:
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I → summarize → points
It is important to recognize that Hirschman's argument applies only in a narrow range of circumstances.
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argument → recognize → circumstances
In order for it to hold true, a subset of participants in a political institution must 1) be able to force through effective reforms where the others could not impose the reforms in their absence; 2) prefer to exit rather than exercise voice despite the likelihood that their use of voice will be successful; and 3) possess exit options that are not available to the others.
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that → hold → others
If 1 holds true, it is hard to see why 2 would, since these individuals could instead get what they want without moving.
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they → hold → what
The more foot voting opportunities become available to everyone, the more the third precondition is weakened
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precondition → become → everyone
Even if all three preconditions are met, foot voting by even some participants could give policymakers an incentive to enact needed reforms of their own accord in order to retain tax revenue from those who might exit.
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who → meet → those
This seems to have occurred when it comes to the paradigm case that gave rise to Hirschman's theory: school vouchers that give parents funds to transfer their kids to better-performing schools….
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that → seem → schools
Peer-reviewed studies of the effects of vouchers find that they actually improve the quality of public schools "left behind" by those who exit.
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who → review → those
By contrast, simply increasing funds for traditional public schools without expanding exit rights has little or no educational benefit.
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increasing → increase → benefit
It turns out that she and others like here were not actually in a position to effectively promote beneficial reforms in the failing schools in which she enrolled her daughter.
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she → turn → daughter
More fundamentally, the main problems besetting those schools are not lack of resources or lack of activism, but poor incentives.
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problems → beset → activism
As economist Alex Tabarrok points out, New York City public schools spend over $40,000 per student per year (one of the highest averages in the nations), and P.S. 307 (the school where she initially sent her daughter) spends over $52,000.
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she → point → 52,000
The problem is that school officials and employees have little incentive to use those resources in ways that actually facilitate quality education.
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that → have → education
To put it crudely, they get paid the same, regardless of how well the kids do.
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kids → put → same
If the latter perform poorly, that might even be a justification for increasing spending further.
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that → perform → spending
Parental "voice" is unlikely to fix that.
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voice → fix → that
By contrast, when parents can choose their schools (as Hannah-Jones eventually did), they can seek out ones that fit their kids' needs better.
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that → choose → needs
And schools that rely on choice for their funding have strong incentives to actually educate the kids effectively.
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that → rely → kids
And, as noted in my book, studies indicate that expanding exit rights and choice particularly benefits the poor and disadvantaged - including minorities.
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expanding → note → minorities
Hannah-Jones rightly laments that such options are often only available to the relatively affluent (most of whom are white).
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most → lament → whom
But there is much we can do to expand exit options for others.
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we → be → others
As I explain in a series of articles coauthored with Josh Braver (see here and here), one way to do so is to break down exclusionary zoning, which - among other things - keeps poor and minority parents from moving their children to areas with better schools.
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which → explain → schools
Exclusionary zoning also has a horrible racist history.
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zoning → have → history
We can also expand choice and exit rights by instituting universal school choice, which can - at least to a large extent - break the connection between residency and schooling, thereby particularly benefiting poor and disadvantaged students.
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which → expand → students
In another recent article, I explain how this (along with other measures to expand "foot voting" opportunities) can help us more fully realize the promise of Brown v. Board of Education.
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us → explain → Education
By contrast, New York City has only a very limited school choice system, which does not include private schools, and has various other constraints.
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which → have → constraints
…and 40 more, not listed.
The Aporia
