Plans from President Donald Trump and DeVos to create a federal private school choice program have hit roadblocks, but there’s a strong push to create new voucher programs in some states and expand existing programs in others. That’s raising critical questions over how well vouchers and other similarly-styled policies serve students and whether there are guardrails in place to ensure the public money being sunk into private school choice is a sound investment.
Findings from a string of recent studies in Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio border on alarming, showing that students who attend private schools with the help of public money may end up doing worse after they leave their public schools.
But school choice advocates vigorously argue that parental demand for private school choice proves that it’s working. Excessive state oversight, they contend, undermines private schools’ ability to be flexible. And there’s no better system of accountability than the market-style kind that comes from giving parents the freedom to choose schools.
Critics counter that a lack of state oversight puts voucher students—many from poor families or with disabilities—at serious risk of falling even further behind.
