Our examination of the Milwaukee data showed that a student's enrollment in the program had only modest effects during the first two years. But by years three and four, choice students began outstripping their peers in the control group. It should not be surprising that student performance does not improve considerably until the third and fourth years. Choice schools are not magic bullets. The disruption of switching schools and adjusting to new routines and expectations may hamper improvement in test scores in the first year or two in a choice school.
Educational benefits accumulate and multiply with the passage of time.
Democratic Values and Balkanization Choice critics point out that the purpose of education is not merely to teach math and reading, but also to prepare citizens for a democratic society. It was, after all, not so long ago that choice privatization was a strategy favored by those seeking to avoid compliance with the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. But other courts went on to strike down these misguided attempts to perpetuate racial segregation, precluding such strategies in the future. The evidence from most private schools today is that privatization leads to less balkanization, not more. Today's private school students are less racially isolated than their public school peers.