The Milwaukee Voucher Experiment

TLDR

The study describes the characteristics of students, families, and schools that participated in the Milwaukee voucher program during its first five years. The authors review the program’s design, theoretical background, and participant demographics to frame the analysis. The evaluation reveals mixed outcomes: some schools and families experience benefits, while overall results are heterogeneous, with both positive and negative effects and significant variation in school quality.

Abstract

This article provides a summary of the results of the first five years of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which was the first program in the United States to allow students to attend private schools with public vouchers. I begin with a brief discussion of the theoretical and research issues. Following a description of the initial program and subsequent changes, I outline who participated in the program—including characteristics of students and families and schools. I then describe the results in terms of the effects on families, student outcomes, and schools. I conclude with a discussion of the implications for this type of program and more open-ended voucher programs. For those holding extreme positions on this controversial issue, there will be both ammunition and frustration, for the results contain both positive and negative elements. The quality of both the public and private schools and therefore student outcomes vary within and between schools, and that variance is more extreme than in middle-class or wealthy communities. Some schools are excellent, and families fight to get in them and stay in them. Some are so bad that they fail and, if they are private, cease to exist—often in mid-year. The general results of the voucher program follow that pattern: Some results are clearly positive, some can be interpreted either way, and others are negative.