ERIC Number: EJ1027209
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 7
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1539-9664
EISSN: N/A
The Impact of School Vouchers on College Enrollment
Chingos, Matthew M.; Peterson, Paul E.
Education Next, v13 n3 p58-64 Sum 2013
In 1996, Cardinal John J. O'Connor, archbishop of New York, proposed to Rudy Crew, chancellor of the New York City public school system, that the city's most troubled public-school students be sent to Catholic schools, where he would see that they were given an education. New York City's mayor at that time, Rudolph Giuliani, a voucher supporter, attempted to secure public funds that would allow Catholic schools to fulfill the cardinal's offer. Voucher opponents condemned the idea on the grounds that it violated the no establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment. It was only several years later, in 2002, that the U.S. Supreme Court found vouchers constitutional. As the controversy raged in the late 1990s, a group of philanthropists created the New York School Choice Scholarships Foundation (SCSF), which offered three-year vouchers worth up to $1,400 annually to as many as 1,000 low-income families with children who were either entering 1st grade or were public school students about to enter grades two through five. Due to excess demand, SCSF established a lottery for interested families. SCSF asked an independent research team to conduct an experimental evaluation of the impact of the intervention on student achievement and other outcomes, such as school climate and school quality, as reported by the students' parents or other guardians. In this paper, the authors extend the original evaluation of the SCSF program by estimating impacts of the offer of a voucher on college enrollment. The results provide the first experimental evidence of the effects of a voucher intervention on this outcome. The study is also notable for obtaining information on college enrollments for 99 percent of study participants, greatly reducing the potential for bias due to attrition from the evaluation. The authors find large positive impacts on college enrollment for African American students but not for Hispanic students. Impact data for the small group of students from other backgrounds were not able to produce reliable evidence.
Descriptors: Educational Vouchers, Enrollment Influences, Intervention, Developmental Studies Programs, Program Evaluation, Program Effectiveness, College Bound Students, Racial Differences, Student Records, Data Analysis, African American Achievement, College Attendance, School Choice, Ethnic Groups
Hoover Institution. Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010. Tel: 800-935-2882; Fax: 650-723-8626; e-mail: educationnext@hoover.stanford.edu; Web site: http://educationnext.org/journal/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Postsecondary Education; Higher Education; High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A