Should Public Funds Follow Students to Private Schools?

• A 2021 study of Milwaukee's voucher program — the oldest in the country — found that students who used vouchers to attend private schools had graduation rates 14 percentage points higher than comparable public school students. Empirical reviews of voucher programs in DC, Indiana, and Louisiana find positive graduation effects even when test-score effects are modest. Long-run outcomes are what matter — and the evidence on those is favorable.
• Wealthy families can already choose their children's schools by choosing their neighborhood or paying private tuition. Education savings accounts extend that choice to families without the means to move to a high-performing district or pay out-of-pocket. The equity argument for choice is strong: the families most harmed by the assignment of children to schools based on address are those who cannot afford to change their address.
• Competition improves outcomes. Swedish evidence and US charter school data show that when schools must attract students to survive, their instructional quality and student satisfaction improve. Public schools in Milwaukee and DC that faced the most competition from voucher programs showed measurable academic improvement — the market mechanism works even for public institutions.

Debater: To be announced

• Arizona's universal voucher program, launched in 2022, projected 15,000 students would use it; 60,000 enrolled in the first year — mostly students already in private schools, whose families received a windfall at taxpayer expense. The net cost to public schools exceeded $500 million without producing a comparable improvement in outcomes for the children who remained. Most studies of voucher programs find that state fiscal savings are consumed by payments to families that would have chosen private school anyway.
• Private and religious schools accepting public funds face no requirement to admit students with disabilities, to hire licensed teachers, or to report outcomes transparently. In states like Indiana and Louisiana, the majority of voucher schools perform worse on standardized tests than the public schools students left. "Choice" without accountability creates a market for schools that serve parents' cultural preferences, not students' educational needs.
• Public schools are the one institution that every community — regardless of income, religion, or political affiliation — must agree to fund and sustain. They serve children with severe disabilities, children in foster care, children who require specialized support that private schools routinely decline to provide. Defunding them to subsidize choice is a policy that concentrates costs on the most vulnerable students.

Debater: To be announced