Triin Lauri

How does a “good” school and fair choice emerge?

Why do many people perceive education systems as fair and meritocratic, even when they reproduce inequality? A family’s success or failure in securing a school place shapes their sense of fairness, trust in democracy, and support for inclusive welfare policies. Fairness perceptions are not only the result of policy, but emerge from lived experiences and comparisons with others. When parents’ experiences with school choice clash with policy promises or create tensions between meritocracy and solidarity, a social trap can emerge: individually rational choices may reinforce inequality collectively, even against their long-term interests. How school choice policies are designed and implemented can help avoid the trap by supporting both their aspirations and a fairer society. This project studies Estonia, Sweden, and Poland, combining survey experiments, in-depth interviews, and social media analysis to examine how individual experiences evolve into collective narratives and ideas of what makes a “good school” and a “fair choice”.

Result

The project begins in 2026. Its key hypothesis is that parents’ experiences with school choice policies shape fairness beliefs, which influence attitudes toward redistribution and solidarity. Lauri expects that greater exposure to selective schooling increases tensions between meritocracy and redistributive beliefs in education. EDUMERIT will show how school choice policies and parental experiences affect social mobility, fairness reasoning, and political preferences. By identifying the conditions under which meritocracy beliefs rise at the expense of solidarity, the project seeks to inform the design of education systems that balance aspirations with equity, strengthening democratic legitimacy and preventing education from becoming a new political divide. It aims for three breakthroughs: shifting education policy research from design to implementation, uncovering the mechanisms behind fairness perceptions, and advancing understanding of social mobility through parents’ lived experiences.

Impact

Policymakers can use EDUMERIT’s findings to design and implement school admission systems that meet the needs of today’s dynamic education landscapes while balancing parental choice with fairness. By identifying which inequalities matter most to parents and how these shape beliefs about justice, EDUMERIT helps to create policies that are not only effective but also perceived as legitimate. Ultimately, the research supports inclusive education policies that promote both equality of opportunity and public trust.