According to a new study conducted on the efficacy of school choice on minorities in general by Matthew M. Chingos of the Brookings Institution and Paul E. Peterson of the Harvard Kennedy School, there is a direct correlation between private elementary school opportunities that are afforded low-income, minority students, with an increased likelihood of their enrollment in college and subsequent receipt of a bachelor’s degree.
The press release posted by the Harvard Kennedy School cites: “…minority students who received a school voucher to attend private elementary schools in 1997 were, as of 2013, 10 percent more likely to enroll in college and 35 percent more likely than their peers in public school to obtain a bachelor’s degree.”
This New York City school voucher program tracked these efficacies over the course of 17 years. The publication is being released in its entirety to the Journal of Public Economics.
In 1997, children in grades one to five (of approximately 1000 families) were provided vouchers by the School Choice Scholarships Foundation, a New York City non-profit organization. The report goes on to state that although over 20,000 voucher applications were received, they were only awarded to approximately 1,300 students.
The outcomes documented stated: “For disadvantaged minority (African American and Hispanic) students, sizeable, statistically significant, positive impacts are observed.
- Forty-six percent of the control group enrolled in either a two-year or a four-year college for at least one term.
- This percentage increased to 51 percent among those who made use of a voucher, an increment of 10 percent.
- Bachelor’s degree attainment was 9 percent for the minority members of the control group; it increased to 12 percentage points among those who used a voucher, an increment of 35 percent.”
The impact of school vouchers on college enrollment and degree attainment are of particular interest as this study represents the first experimental estimate of the long-term impacts of school vouchers.
The information contained in this article and any other article do not reflect the views of AAA. The opinions, conclusions and other information expressed are neither given nor endorsed by AAA or its representatives, but provided for the sole purpose of presenting updates on current research in this sector.