Privatization and Minority Student Achievement

Existing Voucher Programs

In the United States, only about 67,000 students use publicly funded vouchers, according to the pro-voucher Alliance for School Choice, or roughly one-thousandth of 1% of all students. This number is striking when compared to other forms of school choice. Charter schools, which are schools of choice freed from most state and local regulations governing schools including student catchment zones, now enroll more than 1.7 million students in 41 states. Approximately one fourth of these students (23.5%) attend schools run by for-profit education management companies. An additional 1.5 million students are homeschooled each year. Even the number of private school students, a historically stable population, has increased over the past decade to 5.1 million in 2010, accounting for nearly 11% of the total U.S. student population, compared to 9% in 1993.

The first voucher program was enacted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1989. The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) granted students from families with incomes not exceeding 175% of the federal poverty line vouchers to attend nonsectarian private schools. Student participation was capped at no more than 1% of total district enrollments. In 1995, new legislation expanded the program to include sectarian schools and raised the student cap to 15% of the total district enrollments, or roughly 15,000 students. Over the past decade, encroachments against this new cap again prompted legislation. In 2006, the number of potential MPCP participants was increased to 22,500 and eligibility was extended to [Page 1709]students from families with incomes at or below 220% of the federal poverty line. Evaluations of MPCP show that participating schools are overwhelmingly populated by minority students, as are Milwaukee's traditional public schools.

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