School choice and changing authority: an analysis of the controversy over the Minnesota postsecondary enrollment options law

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Abstract
Interest in school choice has reached an unprecedented level in the USA. Magnet schools and open enrollment programs are growing rapidly; many different types of school choice proposals, including tuition vouchers and tax credits for private schools, have come before state legislatures and school boards nationwide. Some have become controversial; most have been opposed by public school groups. This paper analyzes the controversy surrounding a school choice policy, the 1985 Minnesota Postsecondary Enrollment Options Act (PEO). Like the larger national debate over choice, questions about equity and feasibility arose in the controversy over PEO, but a closer examination of the language and tactics of the PEO debate reveals a more fundamental struggle over authority and a defense of professional control that is in key respects incompatible with goals of school choice. This study describes the theory, development and outcomes of the PEO law and analyzes the contending conceptions of authority contributing to the PEO controversy and to opposition to school choice more generally.
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