
In the past, society championed public schools for their ability to bring together students of different socio-economic backgrounds. Do specialty programs like French Immersion threaten the social cohesion that resulted from this mixing?
In his job market paper, The Provision of Public Choice Options in Mixed Public-Private Education Systems: Evidence from British Columbia, Marc-Antoine Châtelain, a PhD candidate with the Department of Economics explored these questions while investigating the impact of French Immersion programs on both students who opted into the programs, and those who didn’t.
“In North America, there’s been an increase in choice alternatives to traditional public schools,” he explained. “For example, in Canada, French Immersion programs have become increasingly popular, and in the United States, charter schools and magnet schools have seen similar growth. This increase in school choice within the public sector comes with some positive aspects, such as improved school quality and tailored programs that help students learn new skills, but inequality is a great concern in our societies today, and education systems have a role in addressing it and in trying to foster a more equitable society.” [Read more…]