Research

Independent research supports the need for—and the benefits of—school choice. Read what the research says about school choice. To read fact sheets on school choice around the nation, visit our facts page.

GRADUATION RATES

• Washington, D.C.: Students who used their voucher in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program graduated at a rate of 91 percent—more than 20 percentage points higher than those interested in the program who did not receive a scholarship and more than 30 percent higher than the graduation rate of D.C. Public Schools.

  Read the Study: Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Final Report

• Wisconsin: Students participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program had 76.6 percent on-time graduation rate—more than 7.2 percentage points higher than the graduation rate of students in Milwaukee Public Schools.

  Read the Study: Student Attainment and the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program

COLLEGE ENROLLMENT

• New York: African American participants in a private school choice program were 24 percent more likely to enroll in college as a result of receiving a voucher.  The study by the Brookings Institution and Harvard University also shows that African American enrollment rates in selective colleges more than doubled among voucher students, and the rate of enrollment in full-time colleges increased by 31 percent.  Using a randomized experiment to measure the impact of school vouchers on college enrollment, researchers tracked privately-funded voucher students in New York City over a nearly 15-year period.

  Read the Study: The Effects of School Vouchers on College Enrollment: Experimental Evidence from New York City

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

• Washington, D.C.: The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program boosted student reading scores, as the use of a scholarship increased reading achievement by an extra 3.7 months of additional learning over three years.

  Read the Study: Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program Impacts After Three Years, Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program Impacts After Two Years

• Florida: Students participating in the Florida Scholarship Tax Credit performed just as well—if not better—than students nationally. “The typical student participating in the program tended to maintain his or her relative position in comparison with others nationwide. It is important to note that these national comparisons pertain to all students nationally, and not just low-income students,” the study’s author, David Figlio, said. In a later study, Dr. Figlio also found that the typical student participating in the program gained a year’s worth of learning in a year’s worth of time.

  Read the Studies: Evaluation of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program: Participation, Compliance and Test Scores in 2009-10; Evaluation of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program: Participation, Compliance and Test Scores in 2011-12

TAXPAYER SAVINGS

• Florida: The non-partisan Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability reported that: “The corporate income tax credit scholarship program produces a net savings to the state. We estimate that in Fiscal Year 2007-08, taxpayers saved $1.49 in state education funding for every dollar loss in corporate income tax revenue due to credits for scholarship contributions.”

  Read the Study: Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability Report, December 2008

• Wisconsin: An ongoing state-sponsored fiscal analysis of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program found that the voucher program is producing growing net statewide taxpayer savings.  In fiscal year 2010, the estimated savings was $46.7 million, and the estimated net fiscal benefit in fiscal year 2011 is $51.9 million.

  Read the Study: The Fiscal Impact of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: 2010 – 2011 Update and Policy Options