Practical School Choice in the United States: A Proposed Taxonomy and Estimates of Use.

School choice is one of the most frequent recommendations for education reform in the United States today. Unfortunately, the debates are hindered by the lack of a common taxonomy or framework for discussing and evaluating the wide variety of school choice programs available in the United States. Furthermore, there is little information on the number of students that use school choice options. In this paper, I remedy both of these deficiencies. First, I describe the varieties of school choice available and place them within a framework to facilitate comparison. Second, I examine the availability of various school choice options and estimate the number of students in the United States using each option. This information will significantly inform the ongoing school choice debates, including evaluations of school choice and future policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]