School Vouchers

Question A: Expanding the state school voucher program will increase Ohio students' standardized test scores.

Question B: Expanding the school voucher program will decrease poverty in Ohio.

Question C: Expanding the school voucher program will lower the quality of Ohio's public schools.

Question A: Expanding the state school voucher program will increase Ohio students' standardized test scores.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Disagree	5	I used to love vouchers because in theory they seem great, but the research on vouchers is pretty mixed and in practice they do not seem to have much effect. They help private schools and families that prioritize private schools, and they can be helpful for struggling students at failing schools, but expanding them to most of Ohioans is unlikely to help statewide accomplishment because private schools can't scale up that much and... (continued below).
Bizuayehu Bedane	Marietta College	Agree	8
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Strongly Agree	8
Kenneth Fah	Ohio Dominican University	Agree	8
Nancy Haskell	University of Dayton	Agree	8
Paul Holmes	Ashland University	Strongly Disagree	8	Private school vouchers seem to be primarily used for low-quality programming; it's hard to imagine an expansion of the program would not follow this pattern.
Faria Huq	Lake Erie College	Disagree	7
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	Strongly Agree	10
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Disagree	9
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Disagree	7
Michael Myler	University of Mount Union	Disagree	7	If we are not happy with public schools, we should fix them, not give up on them. Perhaps it is time for the state to assume 100% responsibility for funding public schools: state-wide taxing, equal funding per student state-wide. Permit private schools to exist, but the public school (not the private school) still gets the state funding for each student in the district.
Joe Nowakowski	Muskingum University	Uncertain	9
Curtis Reynolds	Kent State University	Strongly Disagree	7	There are a lot of complex dynamics (some students may see higher scores but others may see lower scores) but almost certainly there will not be a significant effect on the average test scores in the state.
Lewis Sage	Baldwin Wallace University	Disagree	8
Dean Snyder	Antioch College	Uncertain	5
Kay Strong	Independent	Strongly Disagree	9
Melissa Thomasson	Miami University	Disagree	8
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Uncertain	7
Kathryn Wilson	Kent State University	Uncertain	3	It may increase the test scores of some students but depending on if additional resources are provided or resources are diverted to the voucher program, it may decrease the test scores of other students.
Rachel Wilson	Wittenberg University	Disagree	8	Vouchers are not a guarantee of better test scores. There is a large literature on what makes them effective and what doesn't.

Question B: Expanding the school voucher program will decrease poverty in Ohio.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Strongly Disagree	5	...(continued from above) part of the reason why private schools appear to get better outcomes is due to cream skimming of more motivated students with better family support. When private schools get a more representative cross section of students, they struggle more too. It is hard to design a voucher system that incentivizes private schools to prioritize the students who are the hardest (and most expensive) to teach. This proposal only expands voucher help to non-poor families, so it will definitely NOT reduce poverty.
Bizuayehu Bedane	Marietta College	Uncertain	8
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Strongly Agree	8
Kenneth Fah	Ohio Dominican University	Agree	8
Nancy Haskell	University of Dayton	Uncertain	6	depends on the time period... likely in the long-run
Paul Holmes	Ashland University	Strongly Disagree	9	I can't see this having any noticeable affect on poverty. The people in the target range are not poor (over 250% of federal poverty levels) so I don't understand how this would decrease poverty.
Faria Huq	Lake Erie College	Uncertain	5
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	Uncertain	5
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Disagree	9
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Strongly Disagree	8
Michael Myler	University of Mount Union	Strongly Disagree	8
Joe Nowakowski	Muskingum University	Uncertain	9
Curtis Reynolds	Kent State University	Disagree	7	There is almost no chance that poverty will decrease from this (and certainly any effect would be years down the road and therefore hard to measure). While education is correlated with poverty, there are too many intermediary factors (access and affordability of college, low demand for high school educated labor, migration of educated individuals from the state, etc.) that means Ohio poverty will not be helped.
Lewis Sage	Baldwin Wallace University	Agree	8
Dean Snyder	Antioch College	Uncertain	5
Kay Strong	Independent	Strongly Disagree	9
Melissa Thomasson	Miami University	Disagree	8
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Uncertain	7
Kathryn Wilson	Kent State University	Disagree	7
Rachel Wilson	Wittenberg University	Disagree	8

Question C: Expanding the school voucher program will lower the quality of Ohio's public schools.

Economist	Institution	Opinion	Confidence	Comment
Jonathan Andreas	Bluffton University	Agree	5	See cream-skimming comment above. Although it will likely leave public schools with more expensive, challenging students, it probably won't hurt overall statewide educational outcomes much. Most voucher programs just don't seem to have much effect -- some show modest gains and others show modest declines and I cannot predict if this particular program is likely to be more successful than most of the past ones. The one very clear benefit is for people at private schools who simply get more money.
Bizuayehu Bedane	Marietta College	Uncertain	8
David Brasington	University of Cincinnati	Disagree	7
Kenneth Fah	Ohio Dominican University	Uncertain	8
Nancy Haskell	University of Dayton	Disagree	8
Paul Holmes	Ashland University	Uncertain	7	It depends how much uptake this gets; I suspect "not much" in which case there would be little impact on schools.
Faria Huq	Lake Erie College	Strongly Agree	8
Michael Jones	University of Cincinnati	Disagree	8
Charles Kroncke	Mount Saint Joseph University	Disagree	9
Trevon Logan	Ohio State University	Agree	7
Michael Myler	University of Mount Union	Strongly Agree	9	It will reduce the quality of public schools that have the misfortune of being in poor districts.
Joe Nowakowski	Muskingum University	Agree	8
Curtis Reynolds	Kent State University	Agree	7	To the extent that vouchers are utilized only by some families (even when available) and those often would have been successful in school anyway, the vouchers tend to pull higher performing students out of schools. That can lower the "ratings" of the schools (to the extent we should even believe them) which can cause further erosion in quality (less resources, for example). However, the main issue is that resources being put into vouchers are not going into the schools anymore, and the state is discussing further cuts to school funding.
Lewis Sage	Baldwin Wallace University	Uncertain	1
Dean Snyder	Antioch College	Uncertain	5
Kay Strong	Independent	Strongly Agree	9	The proposed upper threshold of $111,000 earning for a family of four assuming two are children will exacerbate the privilege of high income families at the cost of lower quality education from reduced public spending on traditional public school.
Melissa Thomasson	Miami University	Agree	8	The solution to poorly performing schools is to fix the problem of school funding in Ohio, not add more vouchers.
Ejindu Ume	Miami University	Uncertain	5
Kathryn Wilson	Kent State University	Agree	7
Rachel Wilson	Wittenberg University	Agree	8