The Washington, D.C., voucher program is not dead yet. It has set its execution date, slipping a provision into last month’s omnibus spending bill to end the program unless it is re-authorized by Congress next year. With anti-voucher members of Congress in a clear majority, supporters of the program are glum about its political prospects. The pall has extended to voucher programs around the country. If our legislators can terminate the D.C. program without too much political cost, might they decide to become serial killers, targeting vulnerable programs in Milwaukee, Ohio, and elsewhere?
Oddly, Congress chooses to act even as the programs continue to produce solid evidence of academic effectiveness. Just this week, the U.S. Department of Education released the results of its official evaluation of the D.C. voucher program. It found that students selected by lottery to receive vouchers to attend private schools made significantly greater progress in reading than did lottery losers who stayed in D.C. district or charter schools. A student attending a private school with a voucher typically was four months ahead of the average public-school student in reading after three years. The first cohort of voucher students to participate in the program was ahead of their public-school counterparts by the equivalent of 19 months of reading instruction after three years in private schools.
Education reformers need to get out of their huff. First, they need to keep goals for educational improvement realistic and continue pursuing evidence-backed reforms like vouchers, even if they are currently out of favor in national politics. And the positive evidence may well save D.C. vouchers and others facing execution. They may even get a reprieve from President Obama, who has declared: “If there was any argument for vouchers it was, all right, let’s see if this experiment works, and then if it does, whatever my preconceptions, my attitude is you do what works for the kids.” If doing what works for the kids decides the issue, vouchers have a very promising future.
Oddly, Congress chooses to act even as the programs continue to produce solid evidence of academic effectiveness. Just this week, the U.S. Department of Education released the results of its official evaluation of the D.C. voucher program. It found that students selected by lottery to receive vouchers to attend private schools made significantly greater progress in reading than did lottery losers who stayed in D.C. district or charter schools. A student attending a private school with a voucher typically was four months ahead of the average public-school student in reading after three years. The first cohort of voucher students to participate in the program was ahead of their public-school counterparts by the equivalent of 19 months of reading instruction after three years in private schools.
Education reformers need to get out of their huff. First, they need to keep goals for educational improvement realistic and continue pursuing evidence-backed reforms like vouchers, even if they are currently out of favor in national politics. And the positive evidence may well save D.C. vouchers and others facing execution. They may even get a reprieve from President Obama, who has declared: “If there was any argument for vouchers it was, all right, let’s see if this experiment works, and then if it does, whatever my preconceptions, my attitude is you do what works for the kids.” If doing what works for the kids decides the issue, vouchers have a very promising future.
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