Rethinking the Welfare State: The prospects for ... - e-Library

Primary and secondary education 153
have devoted many years to studying inner-city education in America
would like to know exactly what it is. 96
CLEVELAND
Cleveland’s voucher program began as a lottery, but has been expanded in an effort to
furnish all low-income families with access to educational vouchers. As with the
Milwaukee program, however, the Cleveland program is not funded on a scale that is
commensurate with the public school system. For instance, scholarships are worth about
$2,250 each as compared with the per-pupil expenditure in public schools of $6,507. 97
There is also a substantial shortage of vouchers relative to the number of eligible
applicants, although as the program expands, this shortage is being diminished. One
positive aspect of the Cleveland program is the availability of publicly funded
transportation for scholarship students. 98 By allowing families who do not reside near a
participating school to take advantage of the voucher program, the likelihood of incomebased
segregation being bolstered is correspondingly reduced.
Greene, Howell and Peterson found that voucher recipients who transferred to a
private school for two years demonstrated an 8 percentage point gain in reading scores
and a 16 percentage point gain in math scores. 99 However, while Metcalf found that
voucher students showed a gain of 6 percentage points in language scores and 4
percentage points in science scores as compared with the public school control group, he
found no significant score differences in math, English or social studies. 100 Hansen
reports that students using vouchers in Cleveland to attend private schools gained 5
percentile points in reading and 15 percentile points in math relative to the national
norm. 101 Although the data is inconclusive in its details, the research teams all agree that
the Cleveland voucher program has produced some gains in academic achievement for
recipients. In light of this performance data, it is not surprising that parents of voucher
recipients in Cleveland were much more satisfied with their chosen schools than were
non-recipient parents with their public schools. Two-thirds of recipient parents reported
that they were “very satisfled” with the academic quality of their private school, as
contrasted with the 30 percent of non-recipient parents who reported that they were “very
satisfied” with their public school. 102
One interesting dimension of the Cleveland experiment concerns the impact of the
voucher program on racial integration. Greene found that 19 percent of voucher
recipients attend private schools that have a racial composition resembling that of the
Cleveland area, whereas only 5 percent of public school students attend similarly
integrated schools. 103 This suggests that assigning students to schools based on their place
of residence has a tendency to group students together on the basis of race as well as
income. The Cleveland evidence strongly supports the contention expressed by some
voucher advocates that school choice will enhance racial integration.
THE NETHERLANDS
In the Netherlands, approximately 70 percent of school-aged children attend independent
schools funded by demand-side subsidies. 104 The state provides funding to public schools
and to both religious and secular independent schools on an equal basis. In this system,