Vouchers helpful for special education students
A new study shows that Florida's McKay Scholarship Program - the second-largest voucher program in the nation - helps provide special education students with a better education than do the public schools. The study, a telephone survey of parents currently and formerly enrolled in the McKay scholarship program, was conducted by Jay P. Greene, Ph.D., and Greg Forster, Ph.D., both of the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research. Highlights include:
• 92.7% of current McKay participants are satisfied or very satisfied with their McKay schools; only 32.7% were similarly satisfied with their public schools;
• Participating students were victimized far less by other students because of their disabilities in McKay schools. In public schools, 46.8% were bothered often and 24.7% were physically assaulted, while in McKay schools 5.3% were bothered often and 6.0% were assaulted;
• McKay schools also outperformed public schools on our measurement of accountability for services provided. Only 30.2% of current participants say they received all services required under federal law from their public school, while 86.0% report their McKay school has provided all the services they promised to provide.
• This superior performance by McKay schools was largely provided for the same or only slightly more money per pupil than is spent in public schools. Even though the McKay program allows participants to choose schools that charge tuition above the amount of the voucher, 71.7% of current participants and 75.8% of former participants report paying either nothing at all or less than $1,000 per year above the voucher;
• Perhaps the strongest evidence regarding the McKay program’s performance is that over 90% of parents who have left the program believe it should continue to be available to those who wish to use it.
Update: Reader Kevin S. makes a very good point, which is the following:
the reason for vouchers is to allow movement from poorly performing schools (measured via test performance) to an environment where kids can perform better. This paper sheds no light on that topic, although it gives the appearance of doing so. Even the introductory write-up on the blog says "...provides students with a better education than do the public schools". My point is that the questions that were asked don't support that claim, unless you define a better education as parental satisfaction with non-academic components.
He's right. While I do consider the study to be one piece of evidence showing that vouchers may ultimately be a successful way to reform education, the study results do not specifially address any cognitive or academic outcomes of Florida's voucher program, and so I was incorrect to state that the study showed that "better education" resulted. Thanks, Kev.