Committee Democrats Challenge the Effectiveness of Private School Choice Programs
WASHINGTON – Today, the full Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing entitled “Expanding Educational Opportunity through School Choice.” The hearing focused on private school choice initiatives, which have proliferated throughout the country over the last 20 years. Research shows private school choice programs to be ineffective at improving student outcomes and provides little to no academic benefit for a select few at the expense of all students. Committee Democrats emphasized that further expansion of these programs would only serve to further educational inequity and jeopardize student civil rights.
“Today, we have before us yet another challenge to the limited pool of funding, one that serves to divert public funds to subsidize the private, often religious, education of a relatively small number of children at the expense of the larger majority attending public schools,” said Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03). “This is a false choice for families in need that threatens to violate basic civil rights protections and puts at risk the idea that our shared future success is most certain when we invest in equitable educational opportunities for all students.”
In most instances, parents do not have a real choice under these voucher schemes since the school selects who can attend. And, there is little evidence to support that school voucher or tax credit programs deliver better outcomes for students. There is research to support that, when compared against students who participate in voucher programs, public school students fare better academically. According to the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, none of the independent studies performed on the most lauded and long-standing voucher programs – Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Cleveland, Ohio; and Washington D.C – found any statistical evidence that children who utilized vouchers performed better than children who did not and remained in public schools. Another study of student achievement in the Florida tax credit voucher program found little difference between the achievement of students receiving vouchers and comparable public school students.
Dr. Luis Herta, Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy at Teachers College – Columbia University, has extensively studied vouchers and tuition tax credits to find that private schools are not more cost effective and efficient at educating all students.
“The majority of voucher and tuition tax credit programs across states expressly prohibit or limit the ability of the government to administer basic oversight and accountability measures on private schools,” said Dr. Huerta. “By prohibiting the state from engaging in due diligence and oversight of private schools, voucher and tuition tax credit programs threaten public authority and the ability of states to insure a uniform education system that advances equity, social cohesion and democratic citizenship.”
Studies have also indicated that students in voucher programs were less likely to have equitable access to key services such as ESOL and special education, services that private schools in many states are not obligated to provide. This hearing highlighted the truth; many families are enrolling in private schools with the expectation that they will provide greater academic outcomes for their children, but that is frequently not the case. Committee Democrats reject ill-advised Republican proposals that are not grounded in the evidence.
Testimony of Dr. Luis Herta, Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy at Teachers College – Columbia University, can be found here.
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