Comment by nkurz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nkurz | Hacker News Reader

1) The town where I live in Vermont does not have a high school, and instead offers a voucher that pays for high school students to attend elsewhere. This can be at another public school, either in Vermont or in nearby Massachusetts. Or it can be used (possibly as partial payment) to a private school. It's expensive, at about $16,000 per student, but overall seems like a better use of funds than trying to run a full high school for a handful of students, and probably provides a better education as well. I don't know how they deal with special needs students who would have costs higher than this. More details about the program here: https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice/programs/vermont-town...

2) When you are calculating the costs per student for the purpose of valuing vouchers, I'd guess you need to include the students who are are being homeschooled or are currently attending private schools without vouchers as part of the denominator. Presumably the vouchers wouldn't be restricted to only the students who are switching, but instead would be given to all? Since about 10% of students are currently private schooled (I presume homeschooling is much lower?), this would reduce the "fair" value of the voucher by another 10% or so if you were trying to keep it cost neutral.

I agree vouchers may make sense in small towns where it’s not cost effective to have an education system at all. I think the town is relying on it’s smallness to avoid costs relating to special needs though and will run into substantial challenges the moment it tries to give a $16,000 voucher to a student that costs far more to educate.

On 2) I agree that my calculations are simplified in the article and further reductions are necessary for cost neutrality.

Thanks for writing this. You motivated me to go digging for any studies that have evaluated the outcomes of these voucher programs. Looks like there are dozens of studies that showcase just how bad these programs can be.

This study by American Progress supports your thesis.

American Progress is a left-of-center alternative to the right-leaning Heritage Foundation. I haven't finished looking for the right wing think tank's studies, but I'll share anything of particular interest when I do.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/highly-negative-imp...

"This analysis builds on a large body of voucher program evaluations in Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., all of which show that students attending participating private schools perform significantly worse than their peers in public schools—especially in math"

I’d suggest you try and look for more mainstream academic studies. American Progress is basically the left wing version of the Heritage Foundation as you highlight. Like the Heritage Foundation their activism often clouds their research to the point that many would express doubt about the conclusions of their studies.

You in Glover or St. J?

Readsboro, down in the balmy south.

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