School Choice Facts: The Truth about Education Vouchers and Opportunity Scholarships

School Choice Facts to Consider

School choice programs are not only improving the education opportunity for participating children, but are also having a dramatic impact on how non-choice public schools operate. Florida, Cleveland, Ohio, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, currently provide students stuck in poorly performing public schools the opportunity to attend other public or private schools of their choice. As the benefits for both the children receiving a choice and for the affected school systems become ever more apparent, support for school choice continues to grow, and more and more that support is coming from unexpected quarters.

Fact: School Choice is Popular -- And Already Available to Most Americans ... Except the Poor

Fact: School Choice Programs Provide an Alternative for Students Stuck in Failing Schools

Fact: School Choice Helps Students Improve

Fact: Competition From School Choice Helps Public Schools Improve

Fact: School Choice Promotes Integration and Tolerance; It Doesn't "Skim" The Top Students (Also, Who Chooses, and How.)

Fact: School Choice Does Not Drain Money From Public Schools

Fact: Support For School Choice is Coming from Non-traditional Sectors and Individuals

A Final Fact To Consider

"Cleveland scored the lowest of any school district in Ohio on the latest state report card, failing to meet a single one of 27 standards for student performance. The district was one of 69 around the state doing so poorly in 1998-99 that they were declared to be in a state of "academic emergency."

Janet Jebben and Mark Vosburgh, "Cleveland Schools Score Lowest in State," Plain Dealer, December 23, 1999, p. 1-A.

Meanwhile, since 1996 at-risk children in Cleveland have been using choice scholarships to attend private schools of their parent's choosing, either secular or religious. A June 1999 Harvard report found high levels of parental satisfaction and involvement, as well as considerable academic gains for participating students, despite the fact that participating families were more economically disadvantaged than the city's public school families on average. The fate of the program is currently in the hands of the US Supreme Court.

School Choice Facts
compiled by
The Institute For Justice

and

Marquette University, Institute for the
Transformation of Learning, Office of Research

and

Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation

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