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Milwaukee voucher parents ranked the “educational quality in chosen school” very important. Similarly, 85.7 percent of participating parents said “teaching approach or style” was very important.39 More than 80 percent of participants in the Milwaukee, San Antonio, and Indianapolis voucher programs said academic quality was their most important reason for choosing their children’s schools.40 The data show that parents who participate in education voucher programs are more satisfied with the results than are parents whose children must attend schools assigned to them by administrators or by their place of residence.

The research discussed so far suggests that voucher programs yield results at least as good as those of traditional public schools, that they work particularly well for African-American students, and that in no case have any categories of students fared worse under voucher programs than under the status quo. Voucher programs also benefit traditional public schools and are popular with parents, who ultimately are the consumers of educational services and, as taxpayers, are usually footing part of the bill.

Effects of Education Vouchers in Other Countries

Less research evidence is available on the modest U.S. voucher efforts than policymakers might wish to see before undertaking the major changes that extensive voucher programs would require. To gain a better understanding of the effects of large-scale programs, the next section turns to countries in Northern and Eastern Europe and Latin America where voucher programs have been operating for anywhere between one and nine decades, some on an extensive national scale.

Sweden

In 1993 the Swedish government required all local education authorities to fund schools of choice at a per student expenditure level of 85 percent of the per student cost of traditional public schools. As a result, Sweden’s families did not have to pay tuition at most private schools and acquired new educational opportunities provided by schools abiding by a new open-admission policy under which schools accepted students of varying ability, ethnicity, and socioeconomic level.

Sweden formed a national agency responsible for approving new independent schools. Swedish students are able to chose any public or participating private school, including those governed and operated by for-profit firms. This newly created nationwide educational marketplace—though limited by price controls, an official curriculum, and other government regulations—led to increased competitiveness, improved student achievement, and greater parental satisfaction with children’s schools.41

New voucher schools were established in a broad cross section of neighborhoods, including high-income areas as well as locales serving predominately working-class and immigrant populations. In terms of scale, the number of independent schools saw a fivefold increase, and private-sector student enrollment increased fourfold. Contrary to anticipated fears, neither economic segregation nor isolation of special needs students materialized.

Netherlands

The Dutch voucher system began in 1917, and the private education sector now enrolls 76 percent of all primary and secondary students.42 Religious foundations (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) run most private schools, though some are nondenominational schools or schools with special pedagogical approaches. State funding covers capital costs, and the local municipality covers operating expenses for private voucher schools. The Netherlands does not allow voucher-accepting private schools to be operated for profit.

Government regulations hold schools accountable to a standard curriculum, a certain number of teaching hours, information reporting, and assessment methods. Belfield and Levin report, “Evaluations of the education system in the Netherlands show positive reports both for freedom of choice and academic effectiveness, and without any dramatic inequities or apparent loss in social cohesion.” 43 Parents report high satisfaction in finding schools to meet their children’s