The Data Doesn’t Seem to Be Vouching for Vouchers

Arguments supporting private management of schools date back to the founding of the United States and have reflected a variety of ideological positions. The call for privatization policies like school vouchers intensified in the mid-20^th century due largely to the assertions of economist Milton Friedman. Friedman proposed that the government should provide funds for schools but should not directly provide instruction, reasoning that the free-market would inherently improve educational outcomes through competition. In addition, at the height of the civil rights movement, the call for vouchers resonated with policymakers seeking a mechanism with which to resist integration of schools. Recently, the push for vouchers has been more openly adopted by those who seek to use government dollars to fund religious education, with evidence suggesting Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos falls into this camp.

In a recent study, Jonathan Mills and Patrick Wolf examine the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP), a voucher program that began as a pilot program in New Orleans in 2008 and was expanded four years later by Governor Bobby Jindal to the entire state. The researchers note that Louisiana is not the first place to utilize vouchers for its students. Across the nation, the results of these programs have been mixed. For example, according to Mills and Wolf’s literature survey, Florida’s system appears to be benefiting students near the eligibility cut off in terms of reading but not math. At the same time, a voucher program in Charlotte, North Carolina, has not produced improvements in student outcomes despite increasing funding. Studies of the voucher program in Ohio have shown a negative impact on students who participate.

In the case of the LSP, the statewide expansion of the program provided the opportunity for 5,000 low- and middle-income students to transfer to private schools with state funds. In many cities and states that design voucher programs, eligibility is targeted—most often at low-income families. Louisiana’s program goes one step further because it is double targeted. To qualify, students must not only come from low-income families but also attend low-performing schools. Examining data after the expansion, Mills and Wolf find that this program negatively impacted this subset of students in both English language arts (ELA) and mathematics scores.

Specifically, Mills and Wolf find that those students who used vouchers to attend their first-choice schools experienced a statistically significant negative effect on their ELA and mathematics progress in the first two years of the program. The negative impacts were less in year two compared to year one, which may suggest that the negative impacts diminish over time, but the research does not yet support that assertion. Students who attended their first-choice schools were also almost fifty percent more likely to attend a private school two years later despite these impacts. In addition, students who did not qualify for vouchers and remained in the public school system showed improvement. It was not clear whether this was a result of competition from private schools or was due to some other factor that benefited students who remained in public schools.

As the call for voucher programs becomes more prevalent and proponents achieve more influential roles to pursue these policies, it is necessary to carefully examine the evidence. Results to this point have not shown a clear and consistent benefit to these policies and in many cases have shown the exact opposite. The Trump Administration pushed for $9.2 billion in cuts to education and a diversion of funds from other education programs to school choice and vouchers. Because the funds supporting voucher systems remove resources from already cash-strapped public school systems. The consequences of this further erosion of the public education system could have lasting impacts on students who remain in public schools.

Article source: Mills, Jonathan N., and Patrick J. Wolf. “Vouchers in the Bayou: The Effects of the Louisiana Scholarship Program on Student Achievement After 2 Years.” Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis 39(3). (2017): 464-484.

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