Private school vouchers do not improve academic achievement. Repeated studies of voucher programs across the country show that vouchers do not result in better test scores for students.

According to studies of school voucher programs in the District of Columbia,[1] Milwaukee,[2] Louisiana,[3] and Ohio,[4] students offered vouchers do not perform better in reading and math than students in public schools. In fact, studies of both the Louisiana[5] and Ohio[6] voucher programs in 2015 and 2016 revealed that students who used vouchers actually performed worse on standardized tests, in math scores in particular, than their peers not in the voucher program. 

[1]See, e.g., U.S. Dep’t of Educ., Evaluation of the D.C. Scholarship Program: Final Report (June 2010), [hereinafter Final Report]

[2] See, e.g., Witte, Wolf, et al., MPCP Longitudinal Educational Growth Study Third Year Report (Apr. 2010), available at http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED511697; Legislative Audit Bureau, Test Score Data for Pupils in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (Report 4 of 5), 17 (Aug. 2011), available at http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lab/reports/11-schoolchoice_ltr.pdf.

[3] Atila Abdulkadiroglu et al., School Vouchers and Student Achievement: First-Year Evidence from the Louisiana Scholarship Program, School Effectiveness & Inequality Initiative (Working Paper #2015.06) 3 (2015) available at https://seii.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SEII-Discussion-Paper-2015.06-Abdulkadiro%C4%9Flu-Pathak-Walters.pdf.

[4] David Figlio and Krzysztof Karbownik, Evaluation of Ohio’s EdChoice Scholarship Program: Selection, Competition, and Performance Effects 32 (Fordham Institute 2016), available at https://edex.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/publication/pdfs/FORDHAM%20Ed%20Choice%20Evaluation%20Report_online%20edition.pdf; see, e.g., Plucker, et al., Evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, Summary Report 1998-2004 (Feb. 2006); Evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, Executive Report 1998-2002 (Feb. 2006).

[5] Morgan Winsor, Louisiana’s Controversial Voucher Program Harms Poor Students, Lowers Grades, New Study Finds (Jan. 10, 2016), Int’l Bus. Times, http://www.ibtimes.com/louisianas-controversial-voucher-program-harms-poor-students-lowers-grades-new-study-2258417.

[6]David Figlio and Krzysztof Karbownik, Evaluation of Ohio’s EdChoice Scholarship Program: Selection, Competition, and Performance Effects 32 (Fordham Institute 2016), available at https://edex.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/publication/pdfs/FORDHAM%20Ed%20Choice%20Evaluation%20Report_online%20edition.pdf.