Editing School voucher (section)

===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.