While K-12 school choices are superficially analogous to college choices, in practice, the choice is far more dependent on parental factors for K-12 than for college.
- When comparing public, private, and charter K-12 schools, it is not always the case that common measures are available, so the comparison may be more difficult than for colleges. This can make it more difficult to become well informed about what schools are better fits.
- Few K-12 students attend boarding schools, and their commuting range is generally smaller (and more parent dependent) than for college students, which can severely limit what K-12 schools are available to them even in a theoretically free choice environment. I.e. a given family may not actually have that many choices when commuting range is taken into account.
- When private schools are included in the mix, some may have tuition that is not affordable (even after financial aid if offered), further reducing choice.
Of course, this does not mean that college choices are purely based on student merit and preferences. Even for colleges, parental SES is an extremely strong factor in college choice (mainly by affordability limitations) for students of similar academic merit. But it is likely to be even greater for K-12.