Friday, July 15, 2005
Senator Ends Bid To Expand D.C. Voucher Program
MarkWe might ask the D.C. officials who are against expanding the voucher program to the suburbs why they support allowing D.C. college students to be charged in-state tuition at out-of-state public colleges. The justification for the law was that the District lacked capacity and it is the same issue when it comes to vouchers.
I don't understand the argument that sending kids to the suburbs will somehow invalidate the 5 year study of vouchers. I think the greater risk to understanding the impact of private school vouchers is people not being able to take advantage of them.
For example, it now looks like no new children are going to be accepted into the voucher program for high school slots. This will almost certainly have a negative incentive to parents entering their kids into the program. If you know that your child will have to go to a public school in high school will you enter the voucher program when they are younger?
So now when researchers look at the impact of vouchers they will have to do what was done in Milwaukee plus at least one additional group. They will need to review test scores of kids in public schools compared to the test scores of those who used vouchers, compared to the group that wanted to use vouchers but could not get a slot, compared to those that were voucher kids but then re-entered the traditional school system in high school. This all gets even more complicated because some families will choose charter schools at some point in their kid's educational experience.
As you see when you consider all of possibilities in the way that a child can be educated in D.C. there is no way to statistically look at just 2 groups, voucher kids versus non-voucher kids. Program evaluation is no reason not to expand the availability of vouchers.
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