School choice programs don’t hurt test scores at public schools, says study

Two of Wisconsin’s school choice programs did not harm test scores at public schools, contrary to the predictions of critics.

This, according to a new study which also revealed small gains in reading scores in districts with school choice, the National Review reports.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) commissioned the study along with School Choice Wisconsin.

“Once again, we see that the continued growth of school choice in Wisconsin has not negatively impacted public schools,” said Will Flanders, WILL research director, in a statement. “In fact, the competition encourages academic improvement in the public-school sector.

“Enacting school choice nationwide has the potential to raise standards and the quality of education for all schools, and the proof is in the data.”

The study focused on two programs in Wisconsin, one in Milwaukee and the other in Racine, where parents may use a voucher to pay for an option other than the local area public school. 

The study found that in neither case was there a significant drop off in public school test scores after the introduction of school choice. 

This is important, said the study authors, because one of the prime arguments against school choice is that it will siphon off the best performing students, and undermine the performance of public schools.  

“[T]he results of this paper suggest that claims about harm to public schools from increased competition ring hollow—and should be ignored in debates about expanding access to educational options,” said the study.  

The study results also contradict a recent opinion piece in Time by Joshua Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University, who claimed the introduction of vouchers result in large drops in test scores.  

Cowen argued that when vouchers are introduced, studies “show some of the largest test score drops ever seen in the research record,” which he called “on par” with the losses created by the union shutdowns of public education during COVID-19.  

However, the WILL study included a literature review of more than 30 studies on the effects of school choice for public school test scores, and all but two showed no significant drop off in test scores for public schools after choice was introduced. 

The results suggest that the positive effects of competition introduced into the school system outweigh any potentially negative effects that might occur to public schools temporarily when choice is introduced, concluded the WILL study authors.