How Can States Make School Voucher Systems More Accountable, Accessible, and Transparent?

It provides a review of the existing literature on programs old and new; a survey of recent de- velopments in state legislatures; an analysis of key legislation in seven states and of the lit- erature typically cited in support of voucher programs; and, based on that information and analysis, a series of recommendations for legislation that better serves children, parents, and the taxpayers bearin. [...] The introduction of vouchers in a handful of states (primarily Florida and Louisiana, as well as Wisconsin) did appear to spur slight improvements in academic outcomes for students in public schools competing with voucher schools for funding.23 It is crucial to note, however, that such effects tend to be tiny (in Florida, roughly the equivalent of moving from the 50th to the 50.2 percentile) and e. [...] Essential Features of Voucher Systems Accountability Although the evidence suggests that several features of voucher systems are troubling, the catastrophic academic outcomes for students who transfer from public to private schools make it critical for academic results to be the starting place for any discussion of policy design. [...] In the very best- case scenario, the insularity of voucher advocacy research is a major reason why many of the studies outlined in this policy brief—studies on high rates of student exit from voucher systems, for example, or high rates of private school closure—are simply absent from Ed- Choice’s documents. [...] The further effect of such EdChoice study summaries, and in some cases the mere existence of those studies in the first place, is to muddle evidence of what are truly unprecedented negative educational impacts since 2010.71 When evidence comes from such sources in place of newly mandated independent evalu- ations, policymakers—and ultimately taxpayers and parents—may be unaware of the risks and tr.