Post-Pandemic Changes in School Choice Practices and Policies

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic served as an inflection point for education policy in the United States, catalyzing rapid and widespread expansion of school choice programs and policies. In just the past five years, more than a dozen states have enacted new or expanded existing voucher or Education Savings Account (ESA) programs, with many adopting near-universal eligibility provisions (EdChoice, 2025). Simultaneously, charter school policies have also evolved, with several states enacting legislation to lift enrollment caps, streamline authorization processes, and ensure greater funding parity with traditional public schools (National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, 2023). These policy shifts reflect a broader post-pandemic movement toward more flexible, parent-directed educational opportunities, largely in response to family dissatisfaction with remote learning, school closures, and perceived gaps in educational quality during the pandemic (Malkus, 2021; Gross & Opalka, 2022). Collectively, these changes have intensified longstanding debates about the effectiveness and equity of market-based reforms in K–12 education, especially as student achievement gaps by race, income, and other characteristics have grown further since the pandemic’s onset (U.S. Department of Education, 2025; Lake & Hill, 2025).

The papers within this panel will explore the implications of expanded school choice during and after the pandemic for student enrollment and achievement, educator labor markets, and school supply. Using data from two different states (Indiana and Tennessee) along with a nationwide panel of schools, each of the papers will use both descriptive and longitudinal methods to answer the following broad questions: How did enrollment trends shift between traditional public and charter schools across the pre-, during-, and post-pandemic periods? How do the trends in pandemic learning loss and subsequent recovery compare between charter and public schools? How has the supply and composition of Catholic school teachers changed relative to their public school counterparts as vouchers have expanded? How are vouchers and ESAs altering the supply of schools within the educational marketplace? Each of the papers will tease out variation in these broad questions by either student (e.g., by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background, etc.) or school subgroups (e.g., location, grade level, organization, etc.).

Together, the panel offers a timely exploration of the post-pandemic transformation in school choice practices and policies. The two charter school papers on this panel will add to the evidence about enrollment trends and student achievement following the pandemic, providing new evidence on the variation within the charter sector. Meanwhile, the two voucher papers will provide some of the first evidence on the impacts of expanded private school choice on teacher labor markets and the supply of schools across sectors. To further the work of the panel’s papers, we have chosen two discussants who are non-presenting co-authors, as we know they are planning to attend the conference. They will not discuss their own papers. Doug Harris will discuss the two Indiana papers on charter school learning loss recovery and the Catholic school teacher labor market. Shaun Dougherty will discuss the Tennessee charter school enrollment paper and the nationwide school supply paper.

Policy Area

• Education

Chair

• Joseph J Ferrare, University of Washington Bothell

Discussants

• Douglas Harris, Tulane University

• Shaun M Dougherty, Boston College

Individual Presentations

• Patterns in Tennessee Charter School Enrollment Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Adam Kho, University of Kentucky; Presenting Author: Shelby Leigh Smith, University of Southern California; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Ron W Zimmer, University of Kentucky

• Vouchers, Catholic Schools, and Teacher Workforce Dynamics: Evidence from Indiana - Presenting Author: Joseph Waddington, University of Notre Dame; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Shaun M Dougherty, Boston College; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Julie Dallavis, University of Notre Dame; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Kiara Sanchez, Boston College; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Isabel J Thompson, University of Notre Dame

• Voucher Effects on School Entry and Exit - Presenting Author: MATIAS IGNACIO MORALES, Tulane University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Douglas Harris, Tulane University

• The Variation in Charter and Public School Learning Loss Recovery in Indiana - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Mark Berends, University of Notre Dame; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Julie Dallavis, University of Notre Dame; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Joseph J Ferrare, University of Washington Bothell; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Adam Kho, University of Kentucky; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Stephen Ponisciak, University of Notre Dame; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Joseph Waddington, University of Notre Dame; Presenting Author: Ron W Zimmer, University of Kentucky

Organizer

• Joseph Waddington, University of Notre Dame