New research on Wisconsin’s school voucher programs
Educational choice in the U.S. has a long history, tracing all the way back to 1869 when Vermont passed the first choice program, the Vermont Town Tuitioning program. When it comes to the modern-day choice landscape, however, Milwaukee is where it all started.
Extensive research has been conducted on the programsince its inception, and new research continues to emerge. A new report is out from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), along with a peer-reviewed version that was recently published in the Journal of School Choice.
Authored by Will Flanders (Research Director at WILL) and Scott Niederjohn (Professor of Economics at Concordia University), this new study evaluates the impact of Wisconsin’s Milwaukee, Racine, and Wisconsin (statewide) voucher programs on student English/Language Arts (ELA) achievement.
I asked Dr. Flanders some questions about his new study with Dr. Niederjohn. Below is our Q&A where he discusses the results of his research, what they mean, and some of the strengths and limitations of the study. A lightly edited transcript follows, with minor changes for clarity, grammar, punctuation, and readability.
