IMAGINE you are a poor parent in Washington, DC. You assumed you would send your child to a public school. But you have been offered a voucher worth up to $12,000 towards tuition at a private one. Should you use it?
Until recently the evidence suggested that you should. In 2004 Congress created the DC Opportunity Scholarship Programme, the first school-voucher scheme directly subsidised by the federal government (states and charities subsidise many others). Since then up to 2,000 families a year have been handed vouchers to attend private school after winning lotteries. In 2010 a study found that 82% of pupils offered a voucher went on to graduate from high school, compared with 70% of similar peers who attended public schools.
Studies of Milwaukee, which introduced vouchers in 1990, have found similar effects on graduation rates. A 2015 study of a privately funded programme in New York found that blacks who received vouchers had higher rates of college enrolment. In Vermont the value of a house is higher if it is in an area that offers school vouchers, suggesting that parents will pay to become eligible for them.
Yet evidence is piling up on the other side. In...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2pKSvBy
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