Transportation as a Barrier to Education Access: Evidence from Chicago Public Schools
NBER Working Papers · 2026 · Cecilia H. Moreira、Steven L. Puller、Ini Umosen
中文摘要
只有当学生能够到达可供其选择的学校时，择校才能削弱居住社区与教育机会之间的联系。我们研究芝加哥的择校情况：当地高中生可以在全市范围内的学校中择校，但通常依赖公共交通，这使公交网络的结构成为机会的关键决定因素。利用学生层面的排名数据和公共交通出行时间，我们记录了两个系统性模式：黑人学生将顶尖学校列为第一志愿的可能性较低，且前往此类学校的公共交通时间更长。我们估计一个离散选择模型，以分离对学校本身赋予的价值与到达学校的成本。我们发现，高中在受重视程度上差异很大，且各种族群体在其相对排名上高度一致。然而，出行时间在不同社区间差异显著，导致对顶尖学校需求的种族差异。在反事实情形下，若让黑人学生拥有白人学生的出行时间，对顶尖学校的需求将增加23个百分点。最后，我们识别出公共交通可达性制约需求的服务不足社区，并量化有针对性的公交服务将如何增加对高质量学校的需求。我们的反事实分析量化了交通如何扩大学校可及性。
Abstract
School choice can weaken the link between residential neighborhood and educational opportunity only if students can reach the schools available to them. We study school choice in Chicago, where high schoolers can choose among schools throughout the city but generally rely on public transit, making the structure of the transit network a key determinant of opportunity. Using student-level rankings and public transit travel times, we document two systematic patterns: Black students are less likely to rank top-rated schools first and face longer public transit times to such schools. We estimate a discrete choice model to separate the value placed on schools from the costs of reaching them. We find that high schools vary substantially in how they are valued and that there is a high degree of agreement across racial groups in their relative ranking. However, transit times vary significantly across neighborhoods, generating racial differences in demand for top-rated schools. Counterfactually, giving Black students the travel times of white students increases demand for top-rated schools by 23 percentage points. Finally, we identify underserved neighborhoods where public transit access constrains demand and quantify how targeted bus service would increase demand for high-quality schools. Our counterfactuals quantify how transportation expands school access.