Marcus Winters and I have a new study out today on the effects of special education vouchers in Florida on the academic achievement of disabled students who remain in public schools. As we write in an op-ed in this morning’s Washington Times: “we found that those students with relatively mild disabilities —the vast majority of special-education students in the state and across the nation — made larger academic gains when the number of private options nearby increased. Students with more severe disabilities were neither helped not harmed by the addition of McKay scholarship-receiving private schools near their public school.” The findings are based on an analysis of individual student data using a fixed effects model.
The results of this analysis of Florida’s special education voucher program have important implications for the four other states (Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, and Utah) that have similar programs. It also suggests ways that federal legislation governing special education, the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), could be reformed. We have two more op-eds coming out this week in the The Wash Times that will explore these issues.
Lastly, this new study speaks to the general question of whether expanded choice and competition improve achievement in public schools. Like the bulk of previous research, including Belfield and Levin, Chakrabarti, Greene and Forster, Hoxby, Rouse, et al , and West and Peterson (as a partial list), the new study finds that student achievement in public schools improves as vouchers expand the set of private options.
UPDATE
There is also an editorial endorsing continuation of the voucher program in DC in the Washington Post and another embracing vouchers in the Wall Street Journal.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 