The dissertation School choice by popular class and the new middle class is the result of a research carried out with families whose children are enrolled in the sixth year of elementary school within a public and private school and in a neighboring municipality of Rio de Janeiro. These schools are considered prestigious in the city. Through a questionnaire administered to 100 parents of public school students and 60 parents of private school students (83 returned questionnaires) and conducted 20 interviews, being 18 interviews together with the parents and 2 interviews with teaching staff of the public school, it was possible to see the reasons for school choice, the concepts that families have about the quality of teaching and the expectations they have for the future that comes from the schooling process of their children. Significant information that emerged was the importance of moral and ethical values transmitted by school as the one found in the statements of Catholic parents and evangelicals, who cherish such values and expected the school to transmit to their children.