There is a difference between offering school choice and encouraging competition among schools, according to a paper by the New York City-based National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education.
A study of the broad school choice policies in New Zealand found that 91 percent of primary school students and 84 percent of secondary school students attended their first-choice schools. But of 157 principals surveyed in 1999 and 2003, only 17 percent reported facing competition from other schools in both years.
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