Are School Vouchers Worth It?

Express Milwaukee:

Are taxpayers really getting their bang for their buck when it comes to funding school vouchers?

The short answer from the Forward Institute is no.

The new, progressive public policy research organization released its comprehensive report today on Wisconsin's education funding and poverty and it's well worth a close read.

A portion of the report examines taxpayer funding for voucher schools and their performance.

Now, this isn't easy to do since schools that accept vouchers don't have to provide the kind of data that fully public schools provide, even though the state has enhanced some of the voucher schools' accountability measures.

That said, the Forward Institute chose to look at state aid per pupil and the percentage of students that test proficient or advanced on state tests. (You'll find all of this on page 46 of the report.)

Let's just acknowledge here that both public schools and voucher schools take in money from other sources. Both types of schools typically spend more per pupil than what they receive from state taxpayers.

Much more on vouchers, here.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 18, 2013 12:07 AM
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