In many urban areas, educators rely on magnet schools to strike a delicate balance between the need to create opportunities for equity in education and the need for parents to have greater choice among schools. But, are magnet schools successful? This document considers whether they fulfill the promises of high achievement and desegregation in inner city areas. Data from 35 full-site magnet schools in Chicago at the elementary and middle school levels show that they are successful, but not necessarily for the reasons many people believe. Aid to expand magnet schools and choice programs has been offered, but these offers may shift the focus of magnet schools from an emphasis on the interests that specific urban populations have in desegregation back to its original emphasis as a more universal concept of choice, and for this reason the offers have been rejected by many educators. Instead of squashing choice when it has been shown to work in magnet schools, it would be useful to turn most of the existing schools into magnet schools and thereby make proven quality universally available. Chicago can show the nation that freedom of choice and private-sector initiative are forces that should be unleashed in education so that, in unison, these forces can continue to accomplish what they already have done so well. One table and seven references are included. (JS)