PRESS RELEASE

February 5, 2003

Contacts:

EXPERIENCE WITH TUITION TAX CREDITS AND VOUCHERS: A MIXED BAG

Utah Foundation today released its January Research Report on school choice, examining the impacts of private school vouchers and tuition tax credits in other states. The report, entitled "School Choice: Experiences With Vouchers and Tuition Tax Credits in Other States," should accompany this release; if not, it is available at http://www.utahfoundation.org/reports.html. In light of the current debate on Senate Bill 34, the Foundation undertook a review of the fiscal and educational impacts of choice measures in states where these programs are already in existence.

The report finds a mixed bag of outcomes in those states. While parents of students who switch to private schools are clearly more satisfied with their children's education, the impact of private schooling on students' test scores is less clear.

According to the report, parents feel strongly that, compared to public schools, private schools provide greater academic rigor, discipline, safety, student-teacher relationships, and parent-teacher relationships. For example, in New York, parents whose children switched to private schools were four times more likely to give their school an "A" grade for overall quality.

While many of the studies show student test score increases that were large in percentage terms, these were mostly underachieving students, and their performance remained below national averages even after improving. Also, the studies that separated ethnic categories showed that African American students saw significant improvement, while Latinos and other students did not. Finally, these studies show the increases in test scores were greatest when students initially made the switch to private schools, but performance generally leveled off after the first year.

It is unclear from any of these studies how much student improvement at private schools is generated by actual improvement in educational quality, or how much is the result of increased parental involvement. Janice Houston, Senior Research Analyst, said, "Parental involvement in a child's education is the strongest predictor of academic success. If a parent makes the sacrifices necessary to move a child from public to private school, their expectations are that the child will succeed. Therefore, any improvement may simply be due to those expectations."

One of the greatest concerns expressed about SB 34 is its potential fiscal impact on the public education system. This report finds that voucher and tax credit programs have not had any discernible fiscal impact on public education systems in their states. However, none of the other states with school choice programs has an income tax directly earmarked for funding education. Sara Sanchez, Research Analyst, said, "Tuition tax credit programs have experienced explosive growth in other states; that kind of growth will impact income tax revenues, which in Utah are dedicated entirely to public and higher education funding. Because of the connection between Utah's education funding and income tax revenues, Utah policymakers must be diligent to ensure their fiscal estimates accurately count the costs and benefits of a tuition tax credit proposal."

Stephen Kroes, Executive Director, said, "Overall, school choice has proven to be a mixed bag: choice definitely improves parental satisfaction, and the fiscal impacts haven't seemed to affect public education funding in other states, but the power of choice to improve students' learning is yet to be proven for broad populations of students. Some of the most powerful arguments for or against school choice are largely philosophical and cannot be settled by research studies at this time."

Utah Foundation is a nonprofit, non-advocacy research organization. Our mission is to encourage informed public policy making and to serve as Utah's trusted source for independent, objective research on crucial public policy issues.