What You Should Know About School Choice

Are you skeptical of school choice programs? Do words like private schools, charter schools, vouchers, and tax credits make you uneasy? If so, Prof. Angela Dills argues that there are four things that you should know about school choice before dismissing it as a viable improvement to our education system:

1. School choice doesn't require parents to bear the full cost of educating their child.
2. School choice lowers the cost of schooling.
3. School choice raises the quality of schooling.
4. Low income and minority students are more likely to benefit from school choice programs.

Dills argues that the American education system is failing our children. We have thrown money at the problem for years with little or no effect. School choice, when it has been tried, has lowered the cost of schooling while maintaining, or even improving, the quality of education.

► Sources:
"School Choice in New York City and Three Years: An Evaluation of the School Choice Scholarships Program" Daniel P. Mayer, Paul E. Peterson, David E. Myers, Christina Clark Tuttle, and William G. Howell

Julie Berry Cullen, Brian A. Jacob, and Steven Levitt (2006) "The Effect of School Choice on Participants: Evidence from Randomized Lotteries," Econometrica, 74(5), 1191-1230.

"More Choice, Less Crime," Angela Dills and Rey Hernández, Education Finance and Policy, Spring 2011, 6(2), 246-266.

"Public School Response to Special Education Vouchers: The Impact of Florida's McKay Scholarship Program on Disability Diagnosis and Student Achievement in Public Schools" Jay P. Greene and Marcus Winters

Howell "School Choice in New York City and Three Years: An Evaluation of the School Choice Scholarships Program" by Daniel P. Mayer, Paul E. Peterson, David E. Myers, Christina Clark Tuttle, and William G.

William G. Howell, Patrick J. Wolf, David E. Campbell, and Paul E. Peterson (2002), "School Vouchers and Academic Performance: Results from Three Randomized Field Trials," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 21(2), 191-217.

► Learn More
"The Effectiveness and Efficiency of Private Schools in Chile's Voucher System," by Patrick J McEwan and Martin Cornoy

"Vouchers for Private Schooling in Colombia: Evidence from a Randomized Natural Experiment" by Joshua Angrist, Eric Bettinger, Erik Bloom, Elizabeth King, and Michael Kremer

[TheIdealGasLaw]

2) google-private schools vs public schools statistics, first link, read summary. 3)greatschools, about second link google-private school cost, look for the part that's about cost. 4) Maybe that's true but if it is it's definitly not going to my school, we have trouble keeping the few things we have.

[ZoneTelevision]

@bluefootedpig 3.) The COnstitution is very clear on Church and state affairs and what is not covered in the Constitution is delineated in memos and other articles from the Founders.

In the United States, the term is an offshoot of the phrase, "wall of separation between church and state, " as written in Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 which reads ...

[Distress.]

Competition improves the quality of educators and students. The only situations it doesn't is if all the parents in that school don't care and are completely ignorant and in government enabled monopolies. In terms of your claim of anti-equality that depends. If you mean unequal results that is intended, if you mean unequal opportunity the market would allow new schools to compete for those lower earners.

[JohnVandivier]

Home school! Why do people always ignore the best form of education when they discuss school choice? Home school policy is critical.

[rbc]

That's not how basic economics works. Forcing people to go with one option actually stifles innovation and inefficiency, causing costs to stay in one place, or even go up, while standards stay low. That's because there is no real incentive to improve your service. If your money is guaranteed, what reason do you have to improve your service?

[MrCharles]

I agree. The public school system is not very innovative, and the private system does change more.

My main concern is that I see private/homeschooling "innovating" in the wrong direction, almost without fail. Many private schools teach drivel, but get fringe customers, like fundamentalists.

The problem is that parents are deciding for their children here, and will simply choose the schools that confirm their own biases instead of challenging them, which means those biases become inherited.

[gunnarthorderson]

The angle on this video is way too far left. The subject should be looking at the camera or slightly to the left or right of the camera. This is tough to watch.

[rbc]

What is needed is for people like you to allow the citizens to solve the education problem instead of rooting for more government monopolies, which don't guarantee quality, but lower the incentive for it.

[TheMidwestAtheist]

@carcabe Well, government already controls public schools. What you should be worried about is private schools lobbying the government for favors. (Point being, don't mistakenly think "government is the problem" when the problem is actually with corporate interests that use government as a tool.)

[incircles]

Bottom line, when ANY money comes from the government, it requires of the receiver a degree of control.
The private, religious college I attended was restricted from teaching any religion courses in a building that received partial federal funding.
I do not support the private institution's acceptance of the federal funding, but this is a prime example of what would happen on every level of education if federal funding was involved in paying for private education institutions.

[marlette]

That's the point. When schools are motivated by profit they will start taking education more seriously. If you don't provide a good education you lose customers. When you allow a monopoly schools have no reason to improve.

[byouno]

Whenever the government makes something "cheaper" it essentially means it allocates resources from one sector to another.

I can say firsthand. I grew up going to private schools all the way up until I graduated high school. Now I go to a public university and the inefficiency and bureaucracy of the system completely blew me away.

[jaspony]

Besides that competition makes everything better and cheaper. Think of the kind of TV we would have if the GOV made TV’s.

[markleggett]

the entire model of; September to June, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. lumping the kids together by age and passing them along every year is archaic and should be abandoned. it holds back students who are ready for more challenges and withholds the extra time and attention from students who need it.

[marlette]

But to make a profit you have to provide a service that people think is worth the value. If you don't have a school that works you won't make a profit.

[gergenheimer]

@magnumsynderella assuming it is allowed to continue, we are seeing the dynamic already taking place - for-profit higher education is making large strides in providing people with alternative ways to further their education at a reasonable cost, and on a schedule that suits them. The biggest hurdle these businesses have to overcome is a perception that the quality of their education is inferior and that they are somehow "tainted" because they operate for profit.

[smcgamer]

These must be some of the smartest comments I've ever seen. I almost forgot I was at YouTube. Anyway, yeah, competition leads to lots of awesome schools.

[rbc]

Translation: "things I don't agree with". I simplify it this way, because concerns like this should be irrelevant in a system that separates church and state. We have been trying for years, to get religious interest groups OUT of bed with the government, but not to just put government in bed with anti-religious interest groups. Whatever the state (hopefully through a democratic process) decides should be taught in public school, that's their issue. But leave individuals and their families alone.

[bluefootedpig]

@magnumsynderella cont to explain otherwise, with vouchers, each student is worth the exact same. While in college, the service is what the charge is, so students can go up in value based on what you charge them. So with this system, each student is worth X, the voucher value, then as a charter school, you must make it work with that money.

[grecorivera]

@incircles36 You can have a voucher system implemented locally without any federal oversight. The state and local governments just need to have the political will to pursue implementation themselves. This would clearly be a 10th amendment issue that states could stand strong on if the people demanded it.