Civic Report No. 9 October 1999School Finance Reform: A Case for Vouchers
Table 1: School Averages Under Different Assumptions
First Line - $2,500 Full or Community Targeted Voucher[Second Line - $5,000 Community Targeted Voucher]
Calibrated Base Model (4.2)
Curriculum Targeting(5.1)
Competition & Bureaucracy(5.2)
Info/ Monitor(5.3)
No Voucher
Base Model
Private Schools
All Schools
W/in Dist.
W/in & Across Dist.
Parental Input
% Switch to Priv. Sch.
—
14.2[26.3]
18.9[33.3]
13.8[23.1]
13.1[22.2]
10.5[16.4]
15.5[22.9]
Pub. School Means
Per Pupil ($)
8,103
8,021[8,010]
8,011[8,120]
8,067[8,078]
8,051[8,055]
8,098[8,039]
8,002[8,012]
Household Income ($)
34,321
29,723[33,010]
28,948[34,121]
29,735[32,786]
29,892[32,656]
30,871[31,397]
29,647[33,745]
Child Ability*
6.20
5.86[5.32]
5.74[5.11]
5.89[5.43]
5.91[5.46]
6.01[5.72]
5.76[5.48]
School Quality**
7.83
7.55[7.29]
7.41[7.20]
8.01[8.43]
7.88[7.90]
8.11[8.76]
7.71[7.72]
Across all Students***
7,822[8,168]
7,901[8,261]
7,872[8,201]
7,891[8,211]
7,932[8,095]
7,864[8,232]
34,321[34,321]
6.20[6.20]
7.84[7.89]
8.17[8.32]
8.42[8.89]
8.02[8.14]
8.39[9.07]
8.36[8.57]
* The child ability levels are arbitrarily calibrated to lie between one and 10.
** School quality arises endogenously from the combination of per pupil spending, per pupil household income, and average child ability in the school. For purposes of this calculation, all values are scaled to lie between zero and 10. While there is thus no natural interpretation for the magnitude of a particular school quality level, we emphasize here the direction and magnitude of change in the variable as we move across the table.
*** Note that "all students" refers to all students that are initially in the public school system before the introduction of vouchers. Therefore, the values in the first column are identical to those for public schools.
[table 1] [table 2]