The supporters of the education status quo are taking aim at opportunity scholarships or vouchers, as proposed by a bill in the legislature. They’re bad, bad, bad, say the critics. Actually, they’re not, they’re not, they’re not, says JLF’s Director of Research and Education Studies, Dr. Terry Stoops. In this piece, Stoops responds cogently to a multitude of criticisms about scholarships/vouchers. For example, point #4 addresses a common refrain from the opposition.
4. “Supporters claim that vouchers are a solution to student achievement problems, but evidence shows that they fail to produce this result.”
Here the authors ignore a huge body of evidence to the contrary. Rather than bore you with the research, I’ll direct you to a new study by Greg Forster of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, “A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Choice.” In a review of existing school choice research (sometimes called a “meta-study”), Forster observed, “Twelve empirical studies have examined academic outcomes for school choice participants using random assignment, the “gold standard” of social science research. Of these, 11 find that choice improves student outcomes — six that all students benefit and five that some benefit and some are not affected. One study finds no visible impact. No empirical study has found a negative impact.” If you are looking for research specific to North Carolina, I have you covered.
You can read all of Stoops’ responses — there are 12 — right here.
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