Expanded school-choice policies have weakened the traditional link between residence and school assignment. These policies have created new school options and new labor for families to manage and divide. Drawing on interviews with 90 mothers and 12 fathers of elementary-age children, I demonstrate that mothers across class, racial, and ethnic backgrounds absorb the labor of school decision-making. Working-class mothers emphasize self-sacrifice and search for schools that will keep their children safe. Middle-class mothers intensively research school information and seek niche school environments. Working-class and middle-class black and Latinx mothers engage in ongoing labor to monitor the racial climate within schools and to protect their children from experiences of marginalization. Partnered fathers and single primary-caregiver fathers invest less time and energy in the search for schools. These findings identify an important source of gender inequality stemming from modern educational policies and suggest new directions for research on school choice.

扩大择校政策削弱了居住和学校分配之间的传统联系。这些政策为家庭管理和分裂创造了新的学校选择和新劳动力。通过对 90 位小学生的母亲和 12 位父亲的采访，我证明了跨阶级、种族和民族背景的母亲吸收了学校决策的工作。工薪阶层的母亲强调自我牺牲并寻找能够保证孩子安全的学校。中产阶级妈妈深入研究学校信息，寻找适合的学校环境。工人阶级和中产阶级的黑人和拉丁裔母亲从事持续的劳动，以监测学校内的种族氛围并保护他们的孩子免受边缘化的影响。有伴侣的父亲和单亲父亲在寻找学校方面投入的时间和精力较少。这些发现确定了源自现代教育政策的性别不平等的一个重要来源，并为择校研究提出了新的方向。