DC Voucher Program Still a Success

Don · Jul 6, 2010

Good news for the children, the parents, the education budget, and the taxpayers. Good news for everybody except the NEA, apparently.

The final report from the DC voucher program has been released. Link to the PDF at the article. Here's a quick summary of the official results.

Even a tiny, restricted program that’s only been around for six years increases graduation rates, has a positive impact on at least some groups of students, harms no groups of students, and does this for less than a third of what the DC Public Schools spend.

DCPS spends around $28,000 per student. The last report pegged the average voucher at just $6,620. The maximum voucher cost is just $7,500.

But the program got squashed.

Along with the kids' educations.

And the taxpayer, of course.

Read as many of the linked articles as you have time for. It's an amazing story, really.

If you don't have time for several articles, this one sums the story up nicely. (This particular article is from before Saint Teddy died.)

Sen. Ted Kennedy's office claims the senator opposed the voucher program from the start because it "takes funds from very needy public schools to send students to unaccountable private schools." (The House Budget Committee holds hearings today on the U.S. Education Department budget).

But just how needy are D.C. public schools? To find out, I added up all the K-12-related expenditures in the current D.C. budget, excluding preschool, higher-education and charter school items. The total comes to $1.29 billion. Divide that by the official enrollment count of 48,646 students, and it yields a total per-pupil spending figure of $26,555.

To put that number in context, it's about $2,000 more per student than the average tuition actually paid at Sidwell Friends, the prestigious school President Obama's daughters attend. And it is more than fourfold the $5,928 average tuition charged last year by the private schools serving voucher students.

Gregg · Jul 6, 2010

Good grief.
Forbes Magazine had an article in December 2006 listing the most expensive private prep schools in the country. Middlesex School, in Massachusetts, was the most expensive at $31,075 for day students. More for boarding students. Their teacher to pupil ratio was 5:1.

I'm sure the DC schools' ratio is much higher .

DC could save money and send their students to 19th most expensive Webb Schools in California for "only" $27,860 (day or boarding). But their teacher:student ratio is only 7-1.

http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/09/private-schools-most-expensive-biz-cx_tvr_1211prep.html

Cranky · Jul 6, 2010

Don't have the time right now (I'm supposed to be logging off to go kill digital people with the hubby), but I wonder if these voucher programs work for special needs kids as well....

Death Wizard · Jul 6, 2010

Don said:
Good news for the children, the parents, the education budget, and the taxpayers. Good news for everybody except the NEA, apparently.

The final report from the DC voucher program has been released. Link to the PDF at the article. Here's a quick summary of the official results.

But the program got squashed.

Along with the kids' educations.

And the taxpayer, of course.

Read as many of the linked articles as you have time for. It's an amazing story, really.

If you don't have time for several articles, this one sums the story up nicely. (This particular article is from before Saint Teddy died.)

Wow, Don ... 10 grand.

clintl · Jul 7, 2010

A few things to point out that make all of these comparisons misleading. There are more, but these three are fairly important.

1) The private schools get to hand pick who they accept. The public schools don't. So they can rig the system in their favor.

2) The parents who choose to take the vouchers are also the ones most likely to be actively involved in their children's education. That's one of the top predictors of academic success - parental involvement.

3) Private schools can get rid of problem students more easily.

I'd also like to point that the study above found that the difference in test scores on achievement tests was statistically insignificant. In other words, they were not teaching skills any better than the public schools.

The main effect seems to be on graduation rates. And I'd be willing to bet the main reasons for that are #2 and #3 above. And to some extent, #1 as well. In fact, #1 and #2 probably have a strong degree of correlation.

The actual study, rather than what was said about it:

http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20104018/pdf/20104018.pdf

backslashbaby · Jul 7, 2010

I'm always glad to see something working.

I'm generally against voucher programs, though, because of the nature of private schools. To add to clintl's points, I submit that private schools want to remain exclusive (usually). They'll just raise their rates, eventually.

But early on, maybe some folks can benefit. That's cool.

darkprincealain · Jul 7, 2010

I think this kind of thing could work, if there was an abundance of private schools. The problem, I think, is forcing parents to go that route to get their kids an effective education. Private schools in my neck of the woods are somewhat divorced from religion because the public schools are so bad, but I understand that it isn't that way everywhere. Should people of other faiths feel obligated to send their kids to the best school, even if that school's values differ?

DC Voucher Program Still a Success

Don

All Living is Local

Gregg

Life is good

Cranky

Death Wizard

Tumhe na koci puujetha

clintl

Represent.

backslashbaby

*

darkprincealain

DC Voucher Program Still a Success

Don

All Living is Local

Gregg

Life is good

Cranky

Death Wizard

Tumhe na koci puujetha

clintl

Represent.

backslashbaby

~~~~*~~~~

darkprincealain

*