Advocates for taxpayer-funded school-choice programs cite the potential of market competition to spur educational improvement and promote equity for low-income students. Meanwhile, school-choice critics lament the exodus of talent and resources from public schools, which they argue such programs necessarily cause. Most research on publicly funded…

This study examines public school characteristics, and public and private school market characteristics, associated with participation among elementary-aged students in a means-tested school voucher program in Florida. Participants are more likely than eligible nonparticipants to come from disadvantaged public schools on multiple dimensions. On…

Programs that enable students to attend private schools, including both vouchers and scholarships funded with tax credits, have become increasingly common in recent years. This study examines the impact of the nation's largest private school scholarship program on the performance of students who remain in the public schools. The Florida Tax Credit…

We study the effects of private school competition on public school students' test scores in the wake of Florida's Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship program, now known as the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which offered scholarships to eligible low-income students to attend private schools. Specifically, we examine whether students in…

School choice options--including both voucher and neo-voucher options like tuition tax credit funded scholarship programs--have become increasingly prevalent in recent years (Howell, Peterson, Wolf and Campbell, 2006). One popular argument for school choice policies, drawing from economic theory, is that public schools will improve the education…

Voucher options like tuition tax credit-funded scholarship programs have become increasingly popular in recent years. One argument for such school choice policies is that public schools will improve the quality of education they offer when faced with competition for their students. This study examines the effects of private school competition on…