Editing School voucher (section)

==Economics==

===Background===
Education as a tool for human [[capital accumulation]] is often crucial to the development and progression of societies and thus governments have large incentives to continually intervene and improve public education.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Freire-Seren |first=Maria Jesus |year=2001 |title=Human Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth |journal=Investigaciones Economicas |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=585–602}}</ref>  Additionally, education is often the tool with which societies instill a common set of values that underlie the basic norms of the society. Furthermore, there are positive externalities to society from education. These positive externalities can be in the form of reduced crime, more informed citizens and economic development, known as the neighborhood effect.<ref>McMahon, Walter. "Externalities in Education". ''Bureau of Economic and Business Research'' Working Paper, no. 877 (1982):1-7.</ref>

In terms of economic theory, families face a bundle of consumption choices that determine how much they will spend on education and private consumption. Any number of consumption bundles are available as long as they fit within the budget constraint. This means that any bundle of consumption of education and private consumption must not exceed budgetary constraints. Indifference curves represent the preferences of one good over another. The indifference curve determines how much education an individual will want to consume versus how much private consumption an individual will want to consume.<ref name="Gruber, Jonathan 2015">{{Cite book |last=Gruber |first=Jonathan |title=Public Finance and Public Policy |publisher=Worth Publishers |year=2015 |edition=5 |location=London}}</ref>

[[File:Education Consumption Choices.png|thumb|Education Consumption Choices]]

Government intervention in education typically takes two forms. The first approach can be broad, such as instituting charter schools, magnet schools, or for-profit schools and increasing competition. The second approach can be individually focused such as providing subsidies or loans for individuals to attend college or school vouchers for K-12.<ref name="Gruber, Jonathan 2015" />

[[File:Voucher Consumption Bundles 2.png|thumb|Family consumption bundles with vouchers]]

Vouchers are typically instituted for two broad economic reasons.<ref name="Gruber, Jonathan 2015" />  The first reason is [[consumer choice]]. A family can choose where their child goes to school and pick the school that is closest to their preference of education provider.

The second reason vouchers are proposed is to increase market competition amongst schools. Similar to the free market theorem, vouchers are intended to make schools more competitive while lowering costs for schools and increasing the educational quality for consumers, the families.

===Effects===

====Negative effects====
Besides the general lack of results, critics of school vouchers argue that vouchers will lead to segregation. Empirical studies show that there is some evidence that school vouchers can lead to racial or income segregation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Brunner |first1=Eric J. |last2=Imazeki |first2=Jennifer |last3=Ross |first3=Stephen L. |display-authors=1 |year=2010 |title=Universal Vouchers and Racial and Ethnic Segregation |journal=[[Review of Economics and Statistics]] |volume=92 |issue=4 |pages=912–927 |doi=10.1162/REST_a_00037 |s2cid=57566240}}</ref> However, research on this topic is inconclusive, as there is also valid research that shows under certain circumstances, income and racial segregation can be reduced indirectly by increasing school choice.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nechyba |first=Thomas |year=2003 |title=School Finance, spatial income segregation, and the nature of communities |journal=Journal of Urban Economics |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=61–88 |citeseerx=10.1.1.197.8436 |doi=10.1016/S0094-1190(03)00041-X}}</ref>

Additionally, since school vouchers are funded by the government, the implementation could cause the funds for public schools to be reduced. Private-school vouchers affect government budgets through two channels: additional direct voucher expenditures, and public school cost savings from lower enrollments.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Committee |first=United States Joint Economic |title=The Fiscal Effect of Private-School Vouchers - Analysis - United States Joint Economic Committee |url=https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/2017/12/the-fiscal-effect-of-private-school-vouchers |access-date=2018-04-25 |website=www.jec.senate.gov |language=en}}</ref> Voucher programs would be paid for by the government's education budget, which would be subtracted from the public school's budget. This might affect the public school system by giving them less to spend and use for their student's education.<ref name=":4" />

A 2018 study by Abdulkadiroğlu et al. found that disadvantaged students who won a lottery (the Louisiana Scholarship Program) to get vouchers to attend private schools had worse education outcomes than disadvantaged students who did not win vouchers: "LSP participation lowers math scores by 0.4 standard deviations and also reduces achievement in reading, science, and social studies. These effects may be due in part to selection of low-quality private schools into the program".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Abdulkadiroğlu |first1=Atila |last2=Pathak |first2=Parag A. |last3=Walters |first3=Christopher R. |date=2018 |title=Free to Choose: Can School Choice Reduce Student Achievement? |journal=American Economic Journal: Applied Economics |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=175–206 |doi=10.1257/app.20160634 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

====Positive effects====
A 2021 [[meta-analysis]] by Shakeel et al., published in the journal '' School Effectiveness and School Improvement'', evaluated evidence from [[randomized controlled trial]]s assessing "student-level math and reading test score effects of school vouchers internationally."<ref name="2021Study">{{Cite journal |last1=Shakeel |first1=M. Danish |last2=Anderson |first2=Kaitlin P. |last3=Wolf |first3=Patrick J. |date=2021-10-02 |title=The participant effects of private school vouchers around the globe: a meta-analytic and systematic review |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09243453.2021.1906283 |journal=School Effectiveness and School Improvement |language=en |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=509–542 |doi=10.1080/09243453.2021.1906283 |s2cid=233527235 |issn=0924-3453}}</ref> After evaluating 21 studies addressing 11 different voucher programs, the meta-analysis authors found "moderate evidence of positive achievement impacts of private school vouchers, with substantial effect heterogeneity across programs and outcome years" as well as evidence suggesting that "voucher interventions may be cost-effective even for null achievement impacts."<ref name=2021Study/> The study authors noted that future experimental studies might yield more facts on whether and how "long-term, scaled-up voucher interventions" affect student achievement.<ref name=2021Study/>