NEPC Review: The Reality of Switchers - (EdChoice, March 2024) - Reviewed by:

Findings and Conclusions of the Report Importantly, the report concedes that most voucher users were not in public school imme- diately prior to their use of a voucher. [...] Apart from this conclusion, the report assumes that some percentage of voucher us- ers would have eventually become or returned to public school in the absence of the voucher system, and that such students should be counted toward cost-savings. [...] In other words, students not in public school just before taking a voucher are assumed to have been in public school at some point prior—suggest- ing that “ever public” should be weighed similarly to “public” status at the time of taking a voucher for the purposes of long-term budget projections. [...] It claims that because the maximum amount of a voucher is usually less than the per-pupil allowance most states spend on public school enrollment, these voucher systems represent a cost-sav- ing to taxpayers in any instance of a true transfer from public to private school. [...] Review of the Validity and Findings and Conclusions A central claim of the report—that the voucher programs in Iowa and New Hampshire likely result in fiscal benefits to those states’ taxpayers—is invalid.