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School Vouchers

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 authorized parents to remove their children from low-performing schools and receive school vouchers from the government to pay for alternative instruction, such as private school tuition or home schooling costs. RAND has conducted several groundbreaking studies on the effect of school vouchers on student achievement and other educational outcomes.

Blog
RAND Turns 75: A Look Through the Decades At World-Changing Research
From anticipating the Space Age in the 1940s to studying gun policy and COVID-19 responses in the 2020s, RAND is celebrating 75 years of research that has made a difference.
May 8, 2023
Report
A Public School Voucher Demonstration: The First Year at Alum Rock
Reports on the first year of a large-scale educational and social intervention that began in the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District, San Jose, California, in 1972.
Sep 19, 2018
Commentary
How School Choice Could Disadvantage Low-Income Students
The flexibility to allow Title I-A funds to follow students across schools has a certain appeal. But it could have negative consequences for some of the poorest students.
Sep 1, 2015
Journal Article
Are Educational Vouchers Only Redistributive?
It is unclear if vouchers increase educational productivity or are purely redistributive, benefiting recipients by giving them access to more desirable peers at others' expense. To examine this, the authors study an educational voucher programme in Colombia which allocated vouchers by lottery.
Aug 1, 2010
Journal Article
Education Vouchers in Colombia
This chapter presents evidence on the impact of a voucher program implemented in 1991 in Colombia. Specifically, the analysis is centered on the mechanism by which the program increased learning outcomes.
Jan 1, 2009
Report
What Do We Know About Vouchers and Charter Schools?
Vouchers and charter schools are two of the most prominent and far-reaching forms of family-choice policies currently in evidence in the nation's schools. An updated version of the report Rhetoric Versus Reality takes a detailed look at what is known about the effects of school choice.
Jul 17, 2007
Journal Article
Educational Vouchers for Universal Pre-Schools
This article provides a brief set of arguments for government funding of universal, pre-school education. It explores the applicability of a voucher plan using a regulated market approach for the funding of universal, pre-school education.
Feb 1, 2007
Research Brief
What Do We Know About Vouchers and Charter Schools? Separating the Rhetoric from the Reality
This research brief describes work documented in Rhetoric Versus Reality: What We Know and What We Need to Know About Vouchers and Charter Schools (MR-1118-EDU).
Jan 1, 2001
Journal Article
School Choice in California: Who Chooses Private Schools?
The school voucher debate has centered on the theoretical merits of allowing families greater choice between private and public schooling alternatives, but has provided few insights into how families currently choose between public and private schools.
Jan 1, 1998
Report
The Effects of the California Voucher Initiative on Public Expenditures for Education
This report presents the findings of an analysis of the fiscal effects of Proposition 174, a school-voucher initiative that appeared on the California ballot.
Jan 1, 1994
Report
The Effects of the California Voucher Initiative on Public Expenditures for Education: Executive Summary
This report is an executive summary of RAND/MR-364-LE, which summarizes the findings of an analysis of the fiscal effects of Proposition 174, a school-voucher initiative that appeared on the California November 1993 ballot.
Jan 1, 1993
Report
The Alum Rock Voucher Demonstration: Three Years of Implementation
This study examines the Alumn Rock School District's attempt to install vouchers within the public school system.
Jan 1, 1976
Report
A Public School Voucher Demonstration: The First Year at Alum Rock, Documentary Appendix
This Documentary Appendix is the fourth in a series of Rand reports that describe and analyze the workings of an education voucher demonstration during its first year (academic year 1972-73).
Jun 1, 1974
Report
A Public School Voucher Demonstration: The First Year at Alum Rock, Summary and Conclusions
A section-by-section condensation of R-1495.
Jan 30, 1974
Report
A Public School Voucher Demonstration: The First Year at Alum Rock, Technical Appendix
Presents further discussion and data supplemental to various sections of R-1495, the central report.
Jan 30, 1974

RAND Topic:
School Vouchers

Research conducted by

RAND Education and Labor