Opportunity Hoarding or Not Leaving Money on the Table? Voucher Policy and Parent Choice

• In Event: (Re)Producing or Disrupting Inequality: Exploring the Utility of Opportunity Hoarding in Educational Research

Abstract

Carson v. Makin, which requires Maine to include religious schools within their voucher program, received less attention amid recent Supreme Court decisions. However, it will have impacts on education policy, pushing school vouchers and the separation of church and state to the forefront of discussions again. This paper examines middle-class parents who use school vouchers and why, and it considers the ways in which these parents are part of a school choice policy landscape with far reaching implications.

This work seeks to empirically examine privileged middle-class families who use the Educational Choice Scholarship Program, Ohio’s rapidly expanding voucher program. These parents, who were not the original intended recipients of modern voucher programs which made racial-justice claims (Forman Jr., 2007) and focused on expanding choice for low-income families (Viteritti, 2001), are able to use vouchers of $5,500 for participating elementary schools and $7,500 for high schools regardless of their income if their local public school meets the criteria (it ranks in lowest 20% in PI Rankings for two years prior and is in a district with 20% Title 1 average over the previous three years) regardless of whether their children ever attended a public school and with no income threshold. This research questions whether these families are engaging in opportunity hoarding (Tilly, 1998) since their choice to use a voucher has implications for less privileged children and for public education, but in many cases did not alter their selection.

Through analysis of secondary sources and a set of in-depth interviews, recorded, transcribed, and coded using Nvivo, this research examines how and why middle-class families use vouchers. Families included in this initial sample (N=10), within one case study city in Ohio, meet the inclusion criteria because they do not qualify for vouchers based on income. This research serves as the first sample of a larger study.

Initial evidence suggests that middle-class parents are choosing to use available vouchers to offset the cost of private schools they would have, or might have, selected for their children anyway because there is no perceived downside. The expansion of the program to include children who were not previously enrolled in public schools and the lack of an income requirement turned this program into one with financial appeal even to those who do not support voucher policy. For example, families can now pay about $5,000 to attend a popular private religious high school with strong athletics that would have cost over $12,000. While the voucher program may increase choice for low-income students, it also eases the path to private, usually religious, schools for middle-class families influencing funding, equity, integration, and the meaning of public secular education.

While there has been research into the achievement effects of vouchers there is a paucity of work on middle-class use of vouchers. This study contributes to our understanding of how school choice mechanisms can be used. This has implications locally as Ohio faces a lawsuit over the program (DeNatale, 2022) and nationally as states consider expanding voucher programs.

Author

• Molly V. Makris, Guttman Community College - CUNY
  Presenting Author