Regulating school choice in Brussels

Abstract

Background:

This article aims to contribute to the current debate on the optimal regulation of school choice in the Brussels Capital Region.

Results:

This author summarizes in a first step the current regulatory framework and makes the distinction between the political objectives pursued by the regulation of school choice, and the procedure that implements these objectives. She argues that these two aspects can be analyzed separately. In a next step, the author describes the specific challenges that the BCR faces as far as school choice is concerned. Next, the author analyses two scenario’s consisting of a set of political objectives for school choice regulation in Brussels and a possible ranking among those. Finally, the author implements both scenario’s in one procedure. In this procedure, parents who informed themselves about the schools and made the effort to meet the school management are advantaged. However, the procedure also limits this advantage in order to maintain a maximal level of equity.

Conclusions:

School choice regulation divides parents, schools, public decision-makers and other stakeholders because it is not possible to accommodate all their aspirations. It is however urgent to find a solution in Brussels. In this article, the author analysed two scenarios that reflect two possible compromises among sometimes incompatible political objectives and proposed a solution that implements theses compromises.