Includes bibliographical references and index.

Conflicting models for public education -- The theory of markets for schooling -- The private school effect -- Achievement in public, charter, and private schools -- The effectiveness of public and private schools -- Understanding patterns of school performance -- Reconsidering choice, competition, and autonomy as the remedy in American education.

Nearly the whole of America's partisan politics centers on a single question: Can markets solve our social problems? And for years this question has played out ferociously in the debates about how we should educate our children. From the growth of vouchers and charter schools to the implementation of No Child Left Behind, policy makers have increasingly turned to market-based models to help improve our schools, believing that private institutions--because they are competitively driven--are better than public ones. With The Public School Advantage, Christopher A. and Sarah Theule Lubienski offer powerful evidence to undercut this belief, showing that public schools in fact out-perform private ones.