School Choice Restores Faith in Education

The evidence is clear that choice improves schools. Take for example one poor school district -- located in the poor New York City neighborhood of East Harlem -- that has had public-school choice since the 1980s. Student performance on reading tests, which once ranked among the worst in the city, ha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Wall Street journal. Eastern edition
Main Author By Reggie White and Sara White
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, N.Y Dow Jones & Company Inc 11.06.1998
EditionEastern edition
Subjects
Children & youth
Education
Educational vouchers
Low income groups
Parent Participation
Private schools
Public schools
Reading Tests
Religious schools
School choice
School districts
State court decisions
Students
United States > US
Milwaukee Wisconsin
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Summary:The evidence is clear that choice improves schools. Take for example one poor school district -- located in the poor New York City neighborhood of East Harlem -- that has had public-school choice since the 1980s. Student performance on reading tests, which once ranked among the worst in the city, has risen to the average. In Milwaukee, after several years in the program, third- and fourth-grade low-income kids participating in the school-choice program have reading scores three to five percentile points higher than low-income students in the public schools. Math scores are five to 12 percentile points higher for choice students. But numbers can't describe the broad revival -- educational and spiritual -- that choice has helped foster. Private individuals have formed a charity called Partners Advancing Values in Education, which provides matching grants to parents who send their children to parochial schools. PAVE has allowed Joy Allen's three children to attend the Believers in Christ Academy. "My children learn more. I think it's a better education," says Ms. Allen, a former public-school bus driver. At the public school her children attended previously, it seemed impossible to change the entrenched system. Ms. Allen says her choice school has "a better system, because it allows the parents and teachers to share values together" through prayer and faith. Now even those not in the PAVE program can enjoy such benefits through publicly-funded vouchers,
ISSN:0099-9660