Research
and Articles On the Impact of Scholarships
and Vouchers on Children, Families
and Communities in Our Nation and
in Our World.
The Collins Center For Public Policy issued an updated report this year that showed that the program has saved taxpayers over $140 million in its first three years. These savings can be used to increase per pupil spending in the public schools—which in fact went up 16% in that three year period.
Demography Defeated: Florida’s K-12 Reforms and Th eir Lessons for the Nation
Goldwater Institute
Policy Report
Dan Lips, Senior Fellow, Goldwater Institute, and Matthew Ladner, Vice President for Research, Goldwater Institute
September 30, 2008
Th is study examines the 10-year impact of these reforms and finds remarkable improvement in Florida’s test scores.
Between 1992 and 1998, Florida’s already-low fourth-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
reading scores were declining. In 1999, when these reforms were enacted, nearly half of Florida fourth-graders scored “below basic” on the NAEP reading test, meaning that they could not read at a basic level. But by 2007, less than a
decade after the education reforms took eff ect, 70 percent of Florida’s fourth-graders scored basic or above. Florida’s
Hispanic students now have the second-highest statewide reading scores in the nation, and African-Americans score
fourth-highest, when compared with their peers.
How
Members of Congress Practice School
Choice
The Heritage Foundation
Backgrounder #1684
Krista Kafer and Jonathan Butcher
September 3,
2003
In
2003, The Heritage Foundation conducted
a survey of Members of Congress on
school choice. Of those who responded
to the survey, 41 percent of U.S.
Representatives and 46 percent of
U.S. Senators send or have sent at
least one of their children to a private
school. In the general population,
only about 10 percent of students
attend private schools. Heritage Foundation
surveys of Congress conducted in 2001
and 2000 yielded similar results.
School
Choice Facts
The Institute for Justice
September 2003
The Institute for Justice, a civil
liberties law firm that has litigated
all over the country in defense of
school choice, assembled a list of statistics
and legal briefs that amplify the
need for more choice in Washington,
D.C.
What
Does a Voucher Buy? A Look at the
Cost of Private Schools
David Salisbury
Cato Institute
Policy Analysis No. 486
August 28, 2003
This study looked at the cost of private
schools in several areas around the
country, including New Orleans, Houston,
Washington, D.C. The researcher explains
what amount of voucher award would
be most beneficial to students and
how these awards would save money
for the areas reviewed because
the voucher amounts are significantly
lower than the public school per pupil
cost.
When schools compete: The
Effects of Vouchers on Florida Public
School Achievement
Jay P. Greene and Marcus
A. Winters
Center for Civic Innovation at the
Manhattan Institute
Education Working Paper No. 2
August 2003
This study, by Manhattan Institute
Senior Fellow Jay P. Greene, Ph.D.,
and Research Associate Marcus A. Winters,
analyzes the effect of Florida's A+
Program on public schools. Proponents
of school vouchers have long argued
that competition for students and
the funding they generate will give
public schools powerful incentives
to improve. This study shows that
schools in direct competition with
vouchers, or threatened by the prospect
of vouchers, are making educational
gains greater than those of other
low-performing schools that are not
facing voucher competition.
No
Child Left Behind Mandates School
Choice: Colorado's First Year
Independence Institute
Pamela Benigno
June 2003
This Issue Paper reviews the methods
Colorado used to notify parents of
their educational options. Students
attending schools on the "School
Improvement" list had the option
to transfer to a different school,
and the state's responsibility was
to communicate this option in a "neutral" way--neither discouraging nor encouraging
a particular decision from parents.
The study found that many districts
and schools did not make parents aware
of their options in an unbiased manner.
Vouchers
for Special Education Students: An
Evaluation of Florida's McKay Scholarship
Program
Jay P. Greene and Greg Forster
Center for Civic Innovation at the
Manhattan Institute
Civic Report
No. 38
June 2003
In this first empirical analysis of
the nation's second largest school
voucher program, Greene and Forster
find that the McKay Scholarship Program
is succeeding by many measures at
delivering better services to families
of disabled students. In their surveys,
parents report that in McKay-sponsored
private schools their children were
better treated, received more services
and had smaller class sizes, achieved
better educational performance and
better behavior, and that they were
happier overall - all by substantially
higher levels than with their traditional
public school. Over 70% of families
report being able to obtain this education
at or within $1,000 above the value
of the voucher.
True Private Choice: A Practical
Guide to School Choice after
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris
Marie Gryphon Cato
Institute
Policy Analysis
No. 466 February
4, 2003
Gryphon's analysis clarifies the Constitutional
requirements the Supreme Court set
out in the recent school choice case,
including that the program be secular
and educational in purpose, and that
if a religious option is included
there must be non-religious alternatives.
Gryphon then provides advocates with
a strategy for advancing an expanded
school choice policy within those
bounds, and discusses the test cases
probing the conflict over school choice
between the First Amendment and more
restrictive state constitutions.
Educational Vouchers and Tax
Credits: A State-by-State Summary
of Current Programs
Marya DeGrow
The Independence Institute
December 18, 2002
DeGrow's paper identifies the scope
and breadth of the tax credit and
voucher systems used by 11 states
to provide varying degrees of school
choice for families of K-12 aged children.
The Need for Educational Freedom
in the Nation's Capital
Casey Lartigue
Cato Institute
Policy Analysis
No. 461
December 10, 2002
Lartigue's historical analysis details
the chronic problems of Washington
DC's top-funded, under-performing
public schools. He argues that blaming
the usual scapegoats like insufficient
funding and personal failures of certain
school leaders is a decades-old distraction
that will only shield a deeply troubled
system from meaningful reform. Instead,
he urges that the system be enervated
with new leadership, parent participation
and entrepreneurship.
Vouchers
for Private Schooling in Colombia:
Evidence from a Randomized Natural
Experiment
The American Economic
Review
Joshua Angrist, Eric Bettinger, Erik
Bloom, Elizabeth King, and Michael
Kremer
December 2002
In
Colombia, a lottery is used to award
scholarships for students to attend
private secondary schools. After three
years, the students using the vouchers
were nearly 10 percentage points more
likely to have finished 8th grade.
The study also found that these students "were less likely to marry or
cohabit as teenagers."
Rising to the Challenge: The
Effect of School Choice on Public
Schools in Milwaukee and San Antonio
Jay P. Greene and Greg Forster
Manhattan Institute
Civic Bulletin
No. 27
October 2002The
study focuses on the impact of school
choice on the academic achievement
of public school students in Milwaukee
and San Antonio. After controlling
for demographic characteristics such
as race and income level and differences
in expenditures, the authors found
increased academic achievement in
public schools that had been exposed
to competition from private school
scholarship programs and charter schools.
What Next for School Vouchers
Harvard University Program
on Education Policy and Governance
Conference proceedings and presentation
of papers
October 17-18, 2002
This website includes presentations
by numerous school voucher leaders
on various fronts of the voucher wars,
including Constitutional status, the
historical and international status
of government and religious schools,
school choice in urban areas, and
vouchers' political future.
School Vouchers: Characteristics
of Privately Funded Programs
U.S. General Accounting
Office
GAO--02--752
September 2002The
GAO examined research findings regarding
78 privately funded voucher programs.
Several studies showed that families
using vouchers were more satisfied
with their children's new schools
with regard to such factors as academics
and safety. Parents using privately
funded vouchers reported that their
children's schools communicated with
them more frequently and had a more
positive environment than did the
public schools. Other studies documented
the academic gains of African-American
students who had received vouchers.
The Impact of School Choice
on Racial Integration in Milwaukee
Public Schools
Howard Fuller and Deborah Greiveldinger
American Education Reform Council
August 2002
When Milwaukee added religious schools
to the range of choices in its voucher
program, opponents contended the change
would increase racial segregation.
This study presents evidence that
racial integration is actually higher
among Milwaukee's religious choice
schools, and furthermore that choice
schools are more integrated than traditional
public schools overall. However, older
public school choice programs which
were created primarily for the purpose
of integration have harmed African-American
students and benefited whites.
The
Unintended Benefits of Private School
Choice
Thomas Nechyba, Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation
June 2002
see also Thomas Nechyba,
School Finance, Spatial Income Segregation,
and the Nature of Communities
Duke University and National Bureau
of Economic ResearchResearch
conducted in 2002 by Duke University
professor Thomas Nechyba suggests
that a citywide voucher program could
alleviate neighborhood income segregation
by attracting higher-income families
to poorer areas. Their relocation
to low-income neighborhoods would
increase property values and improve
the tax base, thereby generating greater
revenues for the public schools. Thus,
benefits flow not only to students
using vouchers, but also to students
who remain in the public-school system.
The
Effects of Town Tuitioning in Vermont
and Maine
Christopher Hammons, Ph.D.
Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation
2002A
2002 analysis of the voucher programs
in Maine and Vermont (the oldest in
the nation) found that choice increases
productivity. In these states, students
in towns without public schools may
attend private schools at public expense.
Schools located in areas where there
was high competition in attracting
students (and their per-pupil funding)
had a strong incentive to improve
performance. Such schools exhibited
higher levels of achievement than
did those in areas with less competition.
Learning for Success: What
Americans Can Learn From School Choice
in Canada
William Robinson and Claudia Hepburn
School Choice Issues in Depth
Vol. 1, Issue 2
The report analyzes the benefits of
school choice policies in Canada showing
that public schools improve under
competitive innovation, private schools
are accountable to provincial curriculum
and assessment standards yet "maintain
independence with school choice," all schools provide higher quality
education, and Canadians broadly approve
of the system. The report specifically
credits broader access to choice as
a cause of the higher average achievement
levels among disadvantaged students.
School Choice in New York
After Three Years: An Evaluation of
the School Choice Scholarship Program
Final Report
Daniel Mayer, Paul Peterson,
Christina Clark Tuttle, and William
Howell
Harvard University, Mathematica Policy
Research, Inc., and University of
Wisconsin
February 2002According
to research conducted by Harvard University
professor Paul Peterson, the academic
achievement of low-income African-American
students who received scholarships
offered by the School Choice Scholarships
Foundation (SCSF) rose significantly.
How
School Choice Helps the Milwaukee
Public Schools
John Gardner
American Education Reform Council
January 2002
John Gardner, former member of the
Milwaukee School Board, reviews the
initial arguments against the institution
of school choice in Milwaukee in the
90's -- that it would cause a decline
in students, funds and academic performance
and shows how the opposite actually
resulted. Budgets have increased,
as have student populations and performance.
Gardner tracks how, when dollars follow
students, schools are empowered to
make critical staff and budget decisions
in response to immediate need. As
a result, he discusses how schools
have increased merit-based teacher
selection and provided more educational
services to disadvantaged areas.
The
Education Gap
William G. Howell and Paul E. Peterson
The Brookings Institution
2002
This book reviews "data from
randomized field trials conducted
in New York City; Dayton, OH; and
Washington, DC." The authors
also include information from a voucher
program in the San Antonio school
district and "a randomized field
trial evaluation of a program that
offered vouchers to 40,000 low-income
families nationwide." The findings
were consistent: on average, participating
students scored "three percentile
points higher than their public school
peers in Year I, six percentile points
higher in Year II, and seven points
higher in Year III."
The
Arizona Scholarship Tax Credit: Giving
Parents Choices, Saving Taxpayers
Money
Carrie Lips and Jennifer
Jacoby
Cato Institute
Policy Analysis
No. 414
September 12, 2001
This paper reviews the results of
Arizona's then-four year old $500
tax credit for organizations that
donate to K-12 tuition scholarship
programs. Through surveys of schools
and analysis of state revenue figures,
the authors found that in its first
three years, over $32 million in donations
provided 19,000 scholarships, mostly
to needy students. Because the tuition
funds raised by the tax credit offset
moneys that would otherwise come from
the state education budget, the program
was revenue neutral.
Lessons From Maine: Education
Vouchers for Students Since 1873
Frank Heller
Cato Institute
Briefing Paper No. 66
September 10, 2001
The state of Maine's unique school
choice program provides funds to towns
which do not have traditional public
schools to sponsor their local children
to attend another approved public
or private school. In 1999, this program
enabled over 35,000 Maine children
to attend a school of choice at a
cost of "20 percent less than Maine's
average per pupil expenditure for
public education." This paper documents
the history of the program and offers
recommendations for expanding school
choice opportunities to families both
in Maine and nationwide.
Lessons
From Vermont: 132-Year-Old Voucher
Program Rebuts Critics
Libby Sternberg
Cato Institute
Briefing Paper No. 67
September 10, 2001
The author discusses Vermont's voucher
program, which paid tuition to public
and private schools for over 6,500
children in grades K-12 in 1998-99.
The history of Vermont's program refutes
conventional attacks on vouchers that
they "skim" the best students or "drain" funds from public schools.
Results
of a School Voucher Experiment: The
Case of Washington, D.C., After Two
Years
Patrick J. Wolf, Paul E.
Peterson, and Martin R. West
prepared for annual meeting of the
American Political Science Association
San Francisco, California
August 30 - September 2, 2001The
study compares the academic experience
of students using privately funded
vouchers through the Washington Scholarship
Fund with that of similar students
in a control group who remained in
public schools. The findings on academic
and social indicators were significant:
Parental satisfaction was higher for
parents of scholarship students, and
African-American students using the
vouchers scored 9 percentile points
higher on national math and reading
achievement tests than their peers
in public schools.
Evaluation
of the Cleveland Scholarship Program
Kim Metcalf, Indiana University
September 2001
This evaluation studied three groups
of students entering kindergarten
in 1998: those who applied for and
received scholarships; those who applied
for but did not receive scholarships;
and those who did not apply for scholarships.
The study found that the students
using the vouchers performed "at
significantly higher levels than other
students when they entered first grade."
Rhetoric
Versus Reality: What We Know and What
We Need to Know About Vouchers and
Charter Schools
Brian P. Gill, P. Michael
Timpane, Karen E. Ross, and Dominic
J. Brewer
RAND Corporation
RB--8018--EDU, 2001The
2001 RAND Corporation review of existing
literature on voucher and charter
programs found that the voucher programs
produced positive or neutral achievement
benefits, resulted in higher parental
satisfaction, and hold the potential
for increases in school integration.
Because choice programs have been
small and limited, RAND researchers
caution against using them to make
predictions about the impact of large
programs. Rather, they suggest, "A
program of vigorous research and experimentation
is called for, but not one confined
to choice programs. Better information
on the performance of conventional
public schools and alternative reform
models is needed as well."
Fiscal
Analysis of a $500 Federal Education
Tax Credit to Help Millions, Save
Billions
Darcy Ann Olsen, Carrie Lips, and
Dan Lips
Cato Institute
Policy Analysis No. 398
May 1, 2001In
this analysis, researchers have assumed
that every dollar spent on the tax
credit would result in a direct revenue
loss to the federal government. At
the state level, however, use of the
tax credit could result in tremendous
savings. Cato analysts say that by
reducing the cost of private schooling,
the credit would encourage some parents
to transfer their children from public
to private schools. "As students
transfer, state governments have fewer
pupils to educate and can reduce expenditures
accordingly."
An
Evaluation of the Children's Scholarship
Fund
Paul Peterson and David
Campbell
Harvard University Program on Education
Policy and Governance
May 2001
The authors use the wide-based, lottery-selected
population of Children's Scholarship
Fund beneficiaries to study the effects
of attending private schools. Among
the most clear results were that parents
of children in private schools are
substantially more satisfied with
their child's school and feel there
are fewer problems in their schools,
and that private schools generally
offer smaller classes. The large,
randomized sample lends credibility
to their assessment.
Lies
and Distortions: The Campaign Against
School Vouchers
Howard Fuller and Kaleem Caire
Marquette University Institute for
the Transformation of Learning Black
Alliance for Educational Options
April 2001
This report argues that informed,
rational debate over vouchers is undermined
by the deceptive methods of school
voucher opponents. Fuller and Caire
present evidence that a variety of
organizations intentionally mislead
the public about school vouchers through
a "Big Lie" strategy. The media has
compounded the misunderstandings by
reporting inaccurate information and
broadcasting anti-choice advocates'
attacks on "straw men" or un-real
policies, resulting in a "contaminated
discussion." The report encourages
the media to reveal this campaign
of deception and help the public weigh
the true opportunities and potential
costs of vouchers.
