I like that CWG interviewed community stakeholders, however she was hood-winked by the expert she chose. Patrick Wolf has an endowed chair in school choice at the Walton funded Univ. of Ark. choice program. Despite the confidence Wolf demonstrates, in the world of peer-reviewed academic scholarship there is little evidence that voucher programs [or charters for that matter] do much of anything but sort student populations. If he was intellectually honest, he would have at least stated that the assertion that choice programs produce higher academic results is controversial in academic literature. My review of the literature is pretty clear. The Milwaukee voucher program has produced no real academic gains. For example.

If you go international, you will see that Milton Friedman's own plan for school vouchers was put into place in Chile back in 81: See 1 & 2 No gains, just student sorting. Sweden did the same in the 90's: See 1 & 2 No gains, just student sorting. Not to mention that Sweden has been dropping like a stone on the PISA assessment over the past decade from a top performer to being on par with the US.

So, no, the gains are not real. By the way, Wolf trained in political science.

From Cari's article:

Proponents of a more inclusive voucher plan will say that one’s zip code shouldn’t determine one’s educational future.

Zip Code Choice now!