Impact of School Vouchers on College Enrollment

Private school vouchers that enable students from low-income families to attend private schools have generated much controversy but little rigorous research. Most voucher studies examine immediate outcomes, such as students’ scores on standardized tests. Few studies are able to track longer-term outcomes, and even fewer are able to do so in the context of a randomized experiment. As a result, the voucher debate continues to generate more heat than light.

On August 23, the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution and the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University co-hosted an event examining evidence from an important new study on school vouchers. Report authors Matthew M. Chingos of Brookings and Paul E. Peterson of Harvard have carried out the first study that measures the impact of school vouchers on college enrollment in the context of a randomized experiment. A presentation of the results by the authors was followed by a panel discussion.

The event was live Tweeted at hashtag
#BIVouchers
.