A Tale of One City, Two Events

It might be August recess for Capitol Hill, but the rest of Washington, D.C. is abuzz with policy analysis.  And today’s topic is school choice.

The Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution and the Harvard Kennedy School on Program and Education Policy and Governance today released a study that shows that African American participants in a private school choice program were 24 percent more likely to enroll in college as a result of receiving a voucher.

This groundbreaking study, which used a randomized experiment to measure the impact of vouchers on college enrollment—joins a plethora of gold-standard research that has already demonstrated high graduation and parental satisfaction rates among private school choice participants.

“The Effects of School Vouchers on College Enrollment: Experimental Evidence from New York City,” which tracked participating students in New York City over a nearly 15-year period, was conducted by Matthew M. Chingos of Brookings and Paul Peterson, a longtime leading researcher on school choice programs and speaker at the AFC National Policy Summit held earlier this year.

Also among the findings:

• African American enrollment rates in selective colleges more than doubled among voucher students

• The rate of enrollment in full-time colleges increased by 31 percent

The data is consistent with results of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which found that voucher students graduate at a rate of 91 percent—more than 30 percentage points higher than students who did not participate in the program.  And according to the program’s administrator, in the 2009 and 2010 school years, 94 percent of 12^th graders participating in the program graduated from high school—and 89 percent of OSP graduates went on to enroll in a two- or four-year college or university.

D.C. and New York aren’t the only places where vouchers have been shown to be a success.  Similar students demonstrating increased achievement and parental satisfaction rates have been conducted in Milwaukee, Florida, and Louisiana.

Study Shows Support for School Choice, Accountability, and Teachers

Researchers from Harvard University and the University of Mississippi recently measured support for education reform—including school choice—by both the general public and teachers, according to newly-released data. Published in The Forum, researchers (including Paul E. Peterson of Harvard University, who spoke at the AFC 2012 National Policy Summit) found that 70 percent of the general public supported various types of educational options.

In the realm of school choice, 70 percent of the general public support allowing scholarship tax credit programs and charter schools to operate.  And a majority of respondents support vouchers and half support means-tested vouchers.  Teachers also responded favorably to school choice options, with a majority of teachers supporting scholarship tax credit programs, charter schools, and online education.  According to the study, parents support school choice more than non-parents when it comes to vouchers, scholarship tax credit programs, charter schools, and online courses.

And here's a finding that we're especially excited to see: Democrats and Republicans had no statistical difference in their support of school choice options—and both equally supporting scholarship tax credit programs.

In addition, African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to support school choice than whites.  Supporting that recent finding are results from a poll released earlier this year from the American Federation for Children and the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options showing that education ranks as the second-most important issue to Latino voters in the upcoming presidential election.  The poll also showed that a total of 85 percent of voters and 91 percent of Latinos think vouchers and scholarship tax credit programs should be available in some form, while majorities of likely voters and Latinos also support specific school choice proposals as well. 

But school choice isn’t the only area that showed interesting results.  According to the study, the general public strongly supports accountability.  When asked about requiring annual testing, 88 percent of the general public supported the idea. 

The study also looked at general views of teachers.  And the results are just what one would expect: teachers are, rightly, held in high regard.  The authors write:

It is not only in the movies that educators are beloved.  Unlike lawyers, bankers, used-car dealers, and state legislators, teachers maintain a superb reputation.  We all remember at least one who had a decisively positive impact on our lives.  We see them as selfless members of a helping profession.  Most Americans say that teachers have “very great prestige,” an accolade otherwise given by a majority of the public only to firefighters, scientists, doctors, nurses, and military officers.