Deal or No Deal? The Effects of Deregulation on Public School Leaders’ Support for Private School Choice in California

Public school leaders might be more likely to support private school voucher programs if they are enacted alongside public school deregulations. We use a survey experiment to examine the effects of public school deregulations on actual public school leaders’ support for a hypothetical private school voucher program in California. We do not find evidence to suggest that public school deregulations affect public school leaders’ support for private school vouchers overall. However, we unexpectedly find that deregulations related to teacher certification and administration of standardized tests further decrease support for private school choice for leaders of large public schools. This unexpected result may be explained by expected adjustment costs or regulatory capture.

In Indiana, school choice means segregation

Following Brown v. Board of Education, schools known as “segregation academies” that were created for the purpose of allowing White students to be educated without contact with Black students proliferated in the southern United States. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited such segregation, these schools remained in existence for decades. In this case study, Michael Shaffer and Bridget Dincher contend that the Choice Scholarship Program in Indiana, a school voucher program, re-creates the segregation academies. Data demonstrate that while White student percentages have climbed since the inception of the program, Black student percentages have declined sharply, creating a large number of schools that meet the definition of a segregated school. And because these schools are private, despite receiving government funds through the voucher program, students do not receive the same federal protections from discrimination that they do in traditional public schools.

Illusory Gains from Chile's Targeted School Voucher Experiment

Chile implemented a targeted voucher programme in 2008 that increased funding for disadvantaged students at public and participating private schools by approximately 50%. This reform would be expected to raise average achievement in participating schools and to reduce the achievement gap related to socioeconomic status, and disadvantaged students did make fourth-grade test-score gains exceeding 0.2 standard deviations that other studies have attributed to the programme. However, we find only small increases in resources and school-switching and little evidence of competition-driven improvement, but a closing of the parental education and income gaps, raising doubts that the programme accounts for much of this convergence.

Side effects in education: Winners and losers in school voucher programs

Even the most effective education reforms and initiatives are unlikely to have a uniform effect on all students. In fact, much like in medicine, some beneficial efforts can have adverse side effects. Yong Zhao takes up this idea as it applies to school choice and voucher programs. When researchers tout the benefits of vouchers, they focus on the average effect of such programs on participating students. But because some students experience negative effects, Zhao argues that vouchers must not be considered a panacea for improving student outcomes.