The nation’s capital is the only city in the US where, for more than a decade, the federal government has been giving vouchers to underprivileged children to attend private schools.
Teachers and unions mostly oppose this approach. Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, of course, largely support this approach. DeVos has pumped millions of dollars into school voucher programs, and now she’s ready to take her issue to a national level.
However, there’s a problem with her plan. The Institute of Education Sciences, (IES), part of DeVos’ own department, last week came up with the finding that many of the beneficiaries of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides the vouchers, might actually do better to turn down the private school money.
As The Atlantic explains,
“The IES compared test scores for two groups of students: students who, through a lottery process, were selected to receive vouchers, and students who applied for yet didn’t receive them. The study compared the progress of both groups of students from spring of 2012 to 2014 and found that, a year after they applied for the scholarship, math scores were lower for students who won vouchers. What’s more, after narrowing the pool of students down to those in kindergarten through fifth grade, both reading and math scores were lower for students who won vouchers.”
What’s the Deal With School Vouchers?
Basically these vouchers are coupons, backed by state dollars, that can be used by parents to send their kids to the school of their choice, even private, religious schools. The money is roughly the equivalent of what the state would have spent to educate the child in a public school.
Often called scholarships, vouchers are most often reserved for low-income students, children with disabilities or for families zoned to a failing public school.
Currently, 14 states offer traditional student vouchers: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma,…