The Road to School: How Far Students Travel to School in the Choice-Rich Cities of Denver, Detroit, New Orleans, New York City, and Washington, DC

E D U C A T I O N P O L I C Y P R OG R A M R E S E A R C H R E P O R T The Road to School How Far Students Travel to School in the Choice-Rich Cities of Denver, Detroit, New Orleans, New York City, and Washington, DC Urban Institute Student Transportation Working Group March 2018 A B O U T T H E U R B A N I N S TI T U T E The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people’s lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists, and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places. Copyright © March 2018. Urban Institute. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to the Urban Institute. Cover photo by Lydia Thompson/Urban Institute. Skyler Clay, a ninth-grader at School Without Walls in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, DC, walks to class after her 30-minute commute on the public bus. Contents Acknowledgments iv Executive Summary v The Road to School 1 Why Student Travel Matters 2 The Landscape of Education in Cities with School Choice 3 Measuring Student Travel Times to School 12 Student Transportation in Five Cities 13 Transportation Policies Vary across City 13 Relative Efficiency of Public Transit 15 Car Ownership in Low- and High-Poverty Neighborhoods 16 Assessing Travel Times to School 20 Race and Ethnicity 22 Income 23 School Type 25 Student Travel Patterns 27 Some Students Are Farther from High-Quality Schools 27 Geographic and Choice Contexts Matter 30 Limitations 33 Conclusions 34 Appendix A. Data Tables and Charts 36 Appendix B. City Maps 42 Appendix C. City Methodologies 45 Notes 50 References 51 Statement of Independence 53 IV A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S Acknowledgments This report was funded by the Walton Family Foundation. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of Urban experts. Further information on the Urban Institute’s funding principles is available at urban.org/fundingprinciples. We thank Denver Public Schools, the Michigan Department of Education, the Center for Educational Performance and Information, the Louisiana Recovery School District, the New York City Department of Education, and the District of Columbia Public Schools, the Washington, DC, Public Charter School Board for sharing data used in this study. We thank John White (Louisiana state superintendent) and Jill Zimmerman (executive director of planning of the Recovery School District Portfolio of Schools) for their feedback on this study. We thank Brian Eschbacher (executive director of planning and enrollment for Denver Public Schools) for his feedback on this study. The authors thank Luigi Caloi, Missy Cosby, Rebecca Ivester, Victoria Rosenboom, and Danielle Sanderson for excellent research assistance and support. The Urban Institute Student Transportation Working Group members are as follows:  Kristin Blagg, Urban Institute  Matthew M. Chingos, Urban Institute  Sean P. Corcoran, New York University  Sarah A. Cordes, Temple University  Joshua Cowen, Michigan State University  Patrick Denice, Washington University in St. Louis  Betheny Gross, Center on Reinventing Public Education  Jane Arnold Lincove, University of Maryland, Baltimore County  Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, Seton Hall University  Amy Ellen Schwartz, Syracuse University  Jon Valant, The Brookings Institution E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y V Executive Summary How to get to school is an important issue for families who want to send their children to schools outside their neighborhood and for education policymakers seeking to implement school choice policies that mitigate rather than exacerbate educational inequality. We analyze travel times between the homes and schools of nearly 190,000 students across five large US cities that offer a significant amount of educational choice: Denver, Detroit, New Orleans, New York City, and Washington, DC. Key findings, which both confirm and question conventional wisdom, include the following:  Most students in our cities do not live farther than about a 20-minute drive from home to school, but travel patterns vary across age and demographic groups.  The distance that students travel (as measured in driving time) appears to vary more by grade than by city, despite wide variation across cities in student transportation policy, public transit availability, geography, and school choice policies. Older students travel farther to schoo