The voucher disconnect

American taxpayers will soon spend $1 billion a year to help pay private-school tuition vouchers, though the policy has yielded few academic gains, reports Stephanie Simon on Politico.com. In Milwaukee, 13 percent of voucher students were proficient in math and 11 percent proficient in reading this spring, worse than students in the city's public schools. In New Orleans, struggling voucher students haven't advanced to grade level any faster than students in public schools that in some cases are rated D or F. And across Louisiana, popular voucher schools posted miserable scores in math, reading, science, and social studies, with fewer than half of voucher students achieving basic proficiency and fewer than 2 percent demonstrating mastery. Yet vouchers are proliferating: 245,000 students in 16 states plus D.C. currently pay private tuition with public subsidies. Nine states added or broadened voucher programs this year; New Jersey and Tennessee may soon join them. Voucher recipients aren't necessarily poor, either. In Milwaukee, a family earning as much as $71,000 annually is eligible; in Louisiana, a family can earn up to $59,000. Two-thirds of students in Wisconsin's Parental Choice Program were already in private schools before receiving tuition subsidies. And Gallup polls consistently find a majority of Americans oppose sending students to private schools at public expense: this year, opposition hit 70 percent. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

Published by LEAP

Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.