Lots of “theories” get tossed around on the question of how to improve the performance of students in public schools. Some of the theories work out; many do not.
Supporters of letting students in failing public schools use vouchers to go to private schools believe that vouchers help not only the students who use them to go to private schools but the students who stay behind in public schools.
How? Well, the idea is that vouchers create competition with public schools, which must improve to hold onto their students.
Now, there is evidence to back up that theory, and that is good news for students and taxpayers.
Florida has a robust voucher program. It provides tens of thousands of students from low-income families a little less than $4,000 per year to attend private schools.
Has the exit of those students from public schools harmed the public schools? Hardly. A new study finds that many public schools in Florida boosted their academic performance after vouchers created competition.
Since the program started, “students in public schools with a greater and more diverse array of private schools around them showed greater gains in standardized test scores than students in other public schools,” the St. Petersburg Times reported. The authors of the study determined that improvement came about because the public schools had to compete for students with private schools that accept vouchers.
“The more schools and the more variety, the more pressure to improve, they surmised. And that’s what happened,” the newspaper reported.
That reinforces the results of another study ordered by Florida lawmakers. It found that low-income students using vouchers are getting as good an education as their low-income counterparts in public schools. But the state spends only $4,000 per voucher student, compared with the $7,000 Florida spends annually on each public school pupil!
“Want to save the state money at a time when school budgets are being slashed? Offer more vouchers …,” the St. Petersburg paper wrote.
There is no single solution to poor academic performance, but choice and competition are undoubtedly part of the answer.