School Choice Makes Public Schoolers More Likely To Succeed

As school choice expands around the country, so do its positive effects. Because the modern school choice movement, which began in the 1990s in Milwaukee, has operated in many places for a decade or more, studies can examine the effects of educational choice on children’s long-term outcomes. (Disclosure: I have worked as a paid consultant for various school choice programs in the past, but the views expressed in this article are, as always, my own.)

A new study released by analysts at the Urban Institute — far from a rabid right-wing think tank — shows how school choice has long-term benefits for public and private school students alike. At a time when a generation of students continues to suffer the harms imposed by Covid lockdowns, the Urban study provides an encouraging path forward.

Improved College Attendance

The study examined the initial years of an Ohio school choice program that offered scholarships to low-income students in failing schools. (State lawmakers have since expanded eligibility for the program to students in all schools and all income brackets, but the study only examined the original populations.) The researchers compared 6,000 students who used scholarships to attend private schools with 500,000 similarly situated students who remained in their public schools.

When it came to college attendance, the scholarship recipients were significantly more likely to enroll in higher education (64 percent) than those who remained in public schools (48 percent). Not only did scholarship recipients attend college more than those remaining in public schools, but they were also significantly more likely to receive a bachelor’s degree within six years of completing high school (23 percent versus 15 percent). 

The effects of scholarships on college attendance were most pronounced for those attending four-year schools and for those who had participated in the scholarship program for four or more years. The effects of scholarships on enrollment were larger for boys than girls, and for black than white students.

The study comes with a few caveats. The graduation effects were harder to calculate, first because not all students in the initial group of 6,000 scholarship recipients were six years removed from high school, and second because those who did graduate had “characteristics that make them more likely to have graduated from college absent the” scholarship.

Private School Scholarships Help Public School Students

But the study comes with another notable distinction: The scholarships for students to attend private schools also improved outcomes for those who remained in public education. Specifically, non-scholarship recipients “who attended public schools that were eligible for the program were about 3 percentage points more likely to enroll in college and 6 percentage points more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than non-participants at public schools that were not eligible.”

The results from Ohio echo the existing literature regarding school choice, in which most studies find that private school choice improves outcomes for public school students. The competitive nature of educational choice — where giving families options forces public schools to up their game — has an effect that goes far beyond the students who decide to switch schools. That dynamic explains why all families should support school choice, even if they remain happy with the public school their child attends.

Proven Results

The researchers’ most recent examination of Ohio’s choice program rebuts prior studies, which showed “negative impacts on test scores.” It stands to reason that private schools might have different curricular priorities than public institutions and therefore might not “teach to the test.”

But most parents probably care much more about whether their child attends — and graduates from — college than whether their child sees a marginal improvement or decline on state-run tests. College enrollment, and particularly college graduation, represents the kind of long-term outcome that policymakers, not to mention parents, care most about.

The fact that some school choice programs have a decade or more of student participation now allows these types of meaningful long-term evaluations. And the effect of Ohio’s scholarship program in encouraging college attendance and graduation reinforces why states should continue to expand school choice to all parents and children nationwide.