-
Chapter 8: Vouchers and Urban Schools
- Brookings Institution Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Our evaluations of the national Children’s Scholarship Fund voucher program and the programs in New York City, Dayton, Washington, D.C., and San Antonio have revealed a generally consistent set of findings— many positive, many neutral, a few negative. Private schools were smaller than public ones. They also had simpler facilities; for example, they were less likely to have a nurse’s office, a gymnasium, or a cafeteria. Their resources were more limited, their expenditures were lower, and their teachers were paid less. Yet, on average, private schools tended to have smaller classes and their educational climate seemed more conducive to learning. Private school students on average experienced less fighting, cheating, disruptive student behavior, property destruction, racial conflict, truancy, and absenteeism. Compared with their peers in public schools, private school students were expected to do more homework; to their parents, the homework they were assigned seemed more appropriate. Private schools also maintained closer communication with families. The test scores of African American students attending private schools rose, thereby helping to close the education gap. Most dramatically, private school parents were much more satisfied with their children’s schools than were similarly situated public school parents. Private school parents were much more likely to give their child’s school an “A” than were public school parents, and when asked about specific dimensions of school life, such as academic quality, safety, discipline, teaching, or communication with families, private school parents repeatedly reported much higher levels of satisfaction. Enthusiasm was particularly high one year into 185 Vouchers and Urban Schools 8 file 04 ch07-appD pp168-224.qxd 3/14/02 2:08 PM Page 185 the voucher program, but even after two and three years, private school parents reported a substantially higher level of appreciation of their school. Not only were they more pleased than the parents in the control group, they were noticeably more satisfied than public school parents generally, whether or not they had applied for a voucher. Not only were these consequences of school choice beneficial, but also few adverse side effects were detected. Participants in the voucher programs were not highly selected along either academic or social criteria, as many had feared. No ethnic group suffered a deterioration in test scores, and inequalities in test scores did not increase as a result of the voucher intervention. Still, we did not detect important benefits anticipated by some voucher enthusiasts . For example, we found little, if any, effect of vouchers on parents’ involvement in their child’s education, student friendship patterns, racial integration, political tolerance, or formation of social capital. While the program enhanced the frequency of religious observance among students, it appears to have had a slightly negative impact on that of their parents. Evaluations of small pilot programs such as those we have undertaken generally raise as many questions as they answer. What explains the findings? Do positive results justify larger-scale interventions? What are the cost implications of expanded voucher interventions? What will be lost in the process of change? At what pace will change proceed? In summarizing the main results from the evaluation and considering their relevance to the constitutional debate, this chapter reflects on their meaning and implications for public policy . We consider the appropriate amount of a school voucher, potential stratification within a larger-scale voucher intervention, conditions under which new schools might form, the impact on the fiscal stability of traditional public schools, and the relative merits of alternative voucher interventions. The Education Gap Voucher interventions that serve African American students seem particularly promising. For one thing, the impact of switching to a private school had a very large impact on the level of school satisfaction expressed by African American parents. African American students who switched from public to private schools also experienced a disproportionately large drop in school disruptions , class size, and school size. In addition, vouchers enhanced school communication with African American families more noticeably than with others. Especially noteworthy was the positive impact on African American test scores, despite the fact that the test scores of students of other ethnic backgrounds were not affected by the voucher intervention. The findings are 186 vouchers and urban schools file 04 ch07-appD pp168-224.qxd 3/14/02 2:08 PM Page 186 [54.205.238.173] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:12 GMT) consistent with other scholarly findings: attending a private school, compared with attending a public school, boosts African American students’ test scores, educational attainment, likelihood of pursuing...