Education Law

Vouchers make no difference in Florida

It should come with no surprise that the Florida private school voucher program has not helped raise student achievement, according to this article in the St. Peterburg Times. This latest finding is added to the numerous others that have drawn similar conclusions about the lack of effectiveness of vouchers (see here and here).

The study of Florida’s Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program, mandated by the state legislature, showed that students using vouchers are doing no better than their peers in public school. Even voucher proponent Jay Greene was quoted as saying voucher support “promised the moon, and public policy almost never delivers the moon.”

The truth is vouchers are not the answer to improving education for all students and do not maraculously improve public schools. As Congress considers whether to fund another voucher program — the only federally funded voucher program for the District of Columbia –  lawmakers should consider these programs’ lack of effectiveness as concluded by so many studies, discontinue the voucher experiment, and redirect the funds to public schools, see NSBA’s letter to Congress here.  Also check out NSBA’s Voucher Strategy Center for information and resources.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on July 01, 2009 (boomark / email).