• Across the full sample, there was a statistically significant impact on reading
achievement of 4.5 scale score points (effect size (ES) = .13)8 from the offer of a
scholarship and 5.3 scale score points (ES = .15) from the use of a scholarship
(table 3). These impacts are equivalent to 3.1 and 3.7 months of additional learning,
respectively.9
• There was no statistically significant impact on math achievement, overall (ES = .03)
from the offer of a scholarship nor from the use of a scholarship (table 3).10
• Parents of students offered a scholarship were more likely to report their child’s school to be safer and have a more orderly school climate (ES = .29) compared to parents of students not offered a scholarship (figure 3); the same was true for parents of students who chose to use their scholarships (ES = .34).
• On the other hand, students who were offered a scholarship reported similar levels of school safety and an orderly climate compared to those in the control group (ES = .06; figure 3); there was also no significant impact on student reports of school safety and
an orderly climate from using a scholarship (ES = .07).
• The Program produced a positive impact on parent satisfaction with their child’s school as measured by the likelihood of grading the school an “A” or “B,” both for the impact of a scholarship offer (ES = .22; figure 4) and the impact of scholarship use (ES = .26).
Essentially, these students do better at reading and just as well in math as public school students.
Also this comes at one quarter the cost of what the DC spends per student.
School choice is more effective and costs less.
“Your kid are probably dumber than Belgians”:
If people got to choose their kids’ school, education options would be endless. There could soon be technology schools, cheap Wal-Mart-like schools, virtual schools where you learn at home on your computer, sports schools, music schools, schools that go all year, schools with uniforms, schools that open early and keep kids later, and, who knows? If there were competition, all kinds of new ideas would bloom.
This already happens overseas. In Belgium, for example, the government funds education—at any school—but if the school can’t attract students, it goes out of business. Belgian school principal Kaat Vandensavel told us she works hard to impress parents. “If we don’t offer them what they want for their child, they won’t come to our school.” She constantly improves the teaching, “You can’t afford ten teachers out of 160 that don’t do their work, because the clients will know, and won’t come to you again.”
School choice works; we should give up this quaint notion of public vs. private education and fund what works—whilst at the same time giving parents the ability to decide where to send their children to school. After all, the point of an education system is to educate, not to fund a government sponsored cycle of bureaucracy.
