The evidence on school vouchers that'll please nobody

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2023

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

School vouchers, or school choice as it's known among advocates, is public funding for children to attend private schools. It's a controversial policy — some say it undermines the public school system, others say it gives parents the ability to choose the best school for their children.

And its popularity has been spiking recently. In 2021, 19 states introduced or expanded them. Partly it's been a reaction against public schools' covid control policies and teaching on sexuality, gender and race.

But leaving aside the deeper political questions, what does the evidence say about the core thing school is supposed to be for: giving children a solid education?

In this episode, we get into whether or not school vouchers improve student learning. The lesson: what may feel better may not have much of an effect.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:03.0	A few years.
0:05.0	A few years.
0:06.0	A few years
0:12.0	a few years. A few years after Hurricane Katrina, Tanya White was getting frustrated with their son's school.
0:18.0	There were teachers leaving, the principal was leaving, what was going on, and I didn't get a valid answer.
0:24.4	Tanya White's son Gino was enrolled in a New Orleans public school, and Tanya says it was
0:29.3	not a good fit for him.
0:30.5	His setting needed to be a little smaller. Financially moving
0:34.1	Gino to a private school was out of the question, but then she received a
0:39.3	letter. Which was if I were interested in picking up a private school of my choice for my child.
0:46.0	Tanya says it was hard to believe but New Orleans had launched this policy called
0:50.4	school vouchers or as advocates call it school choice and in New Orleans case it meant public funding for some children from lower income families to attend private schools.
1:01.0	Yeah, I hit the jackpot.
1:03.0	I hit the jackpot.
1:05.0	But school vouchers is a controversial policy.
1:08.3	Either you think it undermines the public school system, or you think it gives parents the ability to choose the best schools for their
1:14.9	children. And this policy's popularity has been spiking recently. In 2021, 19 states
1:22.2	introduced or expanded school vouchers.
1:25.0	Partly has been a reaction against public schools' COVID control policies or teaching on sexuality, gender and race.
1:32.0	But aside from these deeper political questions, what is the
1:35.8	evidence actually say about the core thing school is for, which is
	...

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