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Will vouchers work?
Putting aside this issue of whether vouchers are needed, or
whether they are constitutional, we propose here to answer a
third question: Do voucher systems improve education?
Voucher proponents argue that market forces under the system will
force the public schools to compete against private schools,
which will improve the level of education. In fact, there is
little if any evidence that such competition will occur or that
such competition will improve the quality of schools. Consider
the following:
- There is little evidence to suggest that academic quality
motivates most decisions for private education. On the contrary,
political scientists Kevin Smith and Ken Meier, in their book
The Case Against School Choice, (pp. 64-79) present
persuasive evidence that school decisions are made for a variety
of reasons, many of which are not directly related to school
quality. If the assumptions of the voucher theory are accurate,
private school enrollments should be greater in public school
districts that have poor academic performance than school
districts that perform well. Yet Smith and Meier's analysis of
Florida school data suggests that there is no relationship
between public school performance and private enrollments. In
fact, private enrollment seemed most closely linked to two
factors: the number of Catholics in the population, and the
number of minorities in the public schools. In other words, the
strongest demand variables were the desire to obtain a religious
education for their children, and (apparently) to escape
minorities.
- Additionally, Smith and Meier note that markets exist to
serve a variety of mundane needs, many of which would play a
large role in determining school enrollments, but which are
rarely mentioned by voucher proponents. In addition to religious
affiliation, for example, people tend to choose schools that are
near to them, that satisfy their desire for good athletic
programs, that service their friends and neighbors, and that have
"elite" reputations (regardless of whether these reputations are
deserved). As Smith and Meier note:
Not everyone would purchase a Mercedes even if price were not a
constraint; many would still opt for Yugos. And education market
would be similar. Educational quality, therefore, may be a demand
of parents and students; but this...may not be the only, or even
the primary, demand.
- Finally, we note that empirical tests of voucher systems
suggest they simply do not work. The largest and most important
voucher program, for example, was begun in the city of Milwaukee
in the early 1990s. The program provided vouchers of up to $3,600
to low-income students in the Milwaukee Public Schools. The
vouchers could be redeemed at any non-sectarian private school
that chose to participate in the program. But this experiment was
far from successful:
- While the program created 1,450 slots for low income students
during the 1994-1995 school year, only 830 students participated
in the program (Doerr, Menendez, and Swomley, in The Case
Against School Vouchers, pp. 47ff).
- Of all the students that switched to private schools, 40% of
them did not return the next year (Doerr, Menendez, and Swomley).
- One of participating private school closed during the course
of the program, and several others bilked the city out of
thousands of voucher dollars by over-reporting the number of
voucher students they enrolled (Church and State, April
1996, p. 15ff.).
- And, most importantly, scores for voucher students did not
improve (John Witte, "The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program," in
School Choice: Examining the Evidence, ed. Edith Rasell
and Richard Rothstein).
[Note: In the past year one team of educational researches has
concluded that the scores of students participating in the Milwaukee
choice program did improve relative to students that did not enroll in the
program (A Critique of "The Effectiveness of School Choice in
Milwaukee: A Secondary Analysis of Data From the Program's
Evaluation, Jay Greene, Paul Peterson and Jiangtao Du). This study
has been criticized on a number of substantive grounds. In particular,
the effect reported in the study disappears when relevant background
variables are controled, many of its results are statistically insignificant,
and the authors sampled an inadequate number of students. This link will take you
a collection of hypertext material on the Green, Peterson, and Du study
housed at the American Federation of Teachers website. Note especially
the critiques authored by the AFT, and noted educational researchers
John Witte and Peter Cookson. We think these critiques effectively
destroy the study's conclusions.]
Nor would voucher program be fair to the poor, the disadvantaged,
the poor student, or the "undesirables." Under voucher programs
private schools are allowed to choose their own students. The
evidence is overwhelming that private schools screen for the best
students, and for students that "fit the mold" of the student
body they want to recruit. Low achieving students (who are more
likely to be poor and disadvantaged) have little chance of being
accepted at private schools that want academically superior
student bodies. Many parents transfer their children to private
schools to escape discipline problems in the public schools; how
likely is it that private schools will admit students that are
perceived to be discipline problems? Many religious private
schools consciously attempt to maintain a sectarian social
character; parents that are not of the favored religion of the
school will not stand the same chance of gaining admittance as
parents of the favored religion.
Our point, in other words, is that a good deal of the "choice"
under voucher systems is the school's, not the parent's.
Under a voucher system no parent is assured of getting into the
school they desire. On the contrary, poor students are likely to
be excluded from schools in which they desire to enroll. The
effect of vouchers, in other words, is to force some parents to
pay for the educations of children at school at which they have
no hope of enrolling. Indeed, in the Milwaukee experiment, the
best non-sectarian schools chose not to participate in the
program; low-income students simply did not interest them. In
a full scale voucher program these differences would surely
persist, which will magnify, not decrease, current
discrepancies between social classes.
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