The School Choice Voucher: A 'Get Out of Jail' Card?

37 Pages Posted: 7 Mar 2016 Last revised: 8 Mar 2019

See all articles by Corey DeAngelis

Corey DeAngelis

American Federation for Children; Cato Institute; Reason Foundation

Patrick Wolf

University of Arkansas - Department of Education Reform

Date Written: March 8, 2016

Abstract

In this report we examine crime rates for young adults who experienced Milwaukee's citywide voucher program as high school students and a comparable group of their peers who had been public school students. Using unique data collected as part of a longitudinal evaluation of the program, we consider criminal activity by youth initially exposed to voucher schools and those in public schools at the same time. We also consider subsequent criminal activity by the students that stayed in the voucher program through 12th grade compared to those who were in public schools for the same period. We show that the mere exposure to private schooling through a voucher is associated with lower rates of criminal activity but the relationship is not robust to different analytic samples or measures of crime. We find a more consistent statistically significant negative relationship between students that stayed in the voucher program through 12th grade and criminal activity (meaning persistent voucher students commit fewer crimes). These results are apparent when controlling for a robust set of student demographics, test scores, and parental characteristics. We conclude that merely being exposed to private schooling for a short time through a voucher program may not have a significant impact on criminal activity, though persistently attending a private school through a voucher program can decrease subsequent criminal activity, especially for males.

Keywords: school vouchers, school choice, public program evaluation, crime, non-cognitive skills

Suggested Citation

DeAngelis, Corey and Wolf, Patrick, The School Choice Voucher: A 'Get Out of Jail' Card? (March 8, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2743541 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2743541

Corey DeAngelis (Contact Author)

American Federation for Children ( email )

1020 19th St NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

Cato Institute ( email )

1000 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001-5403
United States

Reason Foundation ( email )

1747 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20009
United States

Patrick Wolf

University of Arkansas - Department of Education Reform ( email )

201 Graduate Education Building
Fayetteville, AR 72701
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
508
Abstract Views
4,527
Rank
101,478
PlumX Metrics