The purpose of this study is to inform public policies aimed at improving parental school-choice processes. The study estimates both the utility obtained by parents from different school attributes and the effective utility obtained with the actual school choice made by parents. The difference between both types of utilities provides a panorama on how market imperfections affect the general equilibrium of the education market. The results show that parents have different preference functions depending on their socioeconomic level. Nevertheless, regardless of the socioeconomic level, in all preference functions teacher performance remains highly significant. The findings suggest that even if parents would want the schools that serve their children to fulfill a series of academic criteria, they cannot use academic attributes when choosing a school for their children. This seems to be the result of either lack of information or because there is no quality alternative available to them.