Op-Ed #3: Broadening Voucher Eligibility Through Rules and Schools

• In Event: The School Voucher Illusion: Exposing the Pretense of Equity

Abstract

Student eligibility criteria, program mechanisms and accountability structures of early voucher programs have evolved over the last 30 years. The means-testing criteria that targeted low-income families and the stipulation that private schools who choose to participate accept a voucher scholarship in exchange for full tuition, have eroded as vouchers have matured. For example, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) program enacted in1990 included a means-tested income eligibility threshold that limited vouchers to students from families with an annual income equal to or lower than 175% of the Federal Poverty Level. The program also required participating private schools to accept the value of a voucher in lieu of full tuition. Since 1990, the income threshold has increased to 300% of the federal poverty level, the guarantee that a voucher will be accepted in exchange for full tuition at a private school has been rescinded for some categories of voucher recipients, and the cap on the number of students and private schools that can participate in the voucher program has increased over time. Increased income eligibility thresholds and other governance changes have provided wider access to voucher programs, in turn allowing more middle-class families to participate.

This op-ed also explores changes in the program mechanisms and accountability of vouchers. Some states have dramatically increased the number of voucher programs concurrently operating in a state, while at the same time increasing the cap on the number of students who can participate in these programs. The authors discuss how accountability requirements for schools that choose to participate in private school choice programs have evolved or been eschewed. For example, statutory language in some states even prohibit the tracking of enrollment and academic progress of students who exit public schools and enter private schools using a vouchers.

By tracking the eligibility requirements, program mechanisms, and accountability provisions, the authors discuss how voucher program access for low-income or underperforming students may be stymied by more permissive mechanisms that extend to middle income and wealthy families. Thus, the progressive market mechanisms of early voucher programs that allowed low-income families to participate in a controlled school choice market that privileged their interests, have evolved into programs with wider universality of eligibility criteria and limited public accountability—threatening access for early recipients of vouchers and raising issues of equity and access.

Authors

• Luis Alberto Huerta, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Steven J Koutsavlis, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author