Does a Mean-Tested Educational Voucher System Equalize Educational Achievement? Evidence From Chile

• In Event: 42.023 - How Educational Research and Assessment Can Be Used to Address Educational Inequities: An International Perspective

Abstract

Chile implemented a universal school voucher system in the early 1980s. In this system, the government paid a flat per-student subsidy -that did not vary with family socioeconomic resources- to public and private schools. Also, private-voucher schools (but not public schools) were allowed to select students at will. The institutional features of the Chilean voucher system have been argued to provide incentives for private voucher schools to select socioeconomically advantaged and able students, rather than to increase their value added, generating socioeconomic inequalities in educational achievement. In 2008 a major reform known as “preferential school voucher” (Subvencion Escolar Preferencial or SEP in Spanish) was approved by Congress in order to address these problems.
The main challenge in this study of the impact of the reform is the non-observed heterogeneity among schools. The schools that enrolled into the SEP can differ systematically -in characteristics that affect the schools’ educational results- from those that did not enroll into the program (schools’ enrollment was voluntary). That is, we need to recognize that the observed assignment into the SEP is not random.

Authors

• Alejandra Mizala, Universidad de Chile

• Florencia Torche, Stanford University