School vouchers making headlines

School vouchers and school choice schemes have been making headlines around the world in the past month. We look at some of the stories.

More opt for school choice in United States

School choice programme participation has grown by 86 percent in the United States in the past five years, the latest School Choice Yearbook reveals.

More than 150,000 children were participating in 16 school choice programmes in nine states and the District of Columbia, according to the 2007 Yearbook, released by advocacy group the Alliance for School Choice.

The Yearbook highlighted the growing support for school choice among Democratic lawmakers, a sign that school choice was increasingly viewed as a bipartisan issue, an article in School Reform News, published by the rightwing Heartland Institute, asserted.

Further information is at this web page.

Graduation rates higher among voucher students

Students who attend Milwaukee voucher schools are more likely to graduate than those who attend ordinary public schools, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

A second round of results comparing high school graduation figures for Milwaukee Public Schools and a group of private schools in the city’s publicly funded voucher programme has confirmed earlier reports.

About 19,000 students attended around 120 private schools in the city this year, with public funds of up to US$6,501 per student going to the schools.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article is at this web page.

Louisiana set to approve private tuition for New Orleans public-school pupils

The Louisiana Senate has voted for a bill that will let up to 1,500 low- to middle-income students in New Orleans attend private schools at taxpayer expense.

New Orleans has already become the first US city with more than half its public school students enrolled in independently managed charter schools.

Further information on the voucher scheme is at this web page

Voucher scheme demands success from participating schools

The Uttar Pradesh state government is to launch an educational voucher that will cover the cost of a child’s entire schooling at private Convent and Montessori schools.

The private schools will be reimbursed school expenses only if parents are satisfied with the quality of education their children receive.

Further information is at the School Choice in India Campaign website is at this web page.

Obama and McCain agree on educational principles

In a Washington debate, top educational advisers to Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama and his Republican rival, John McCain, found little to disagree on.

Both supported publicly funded, but privately run, charter schools, USA Today reported. Neither backed taxpayer-funded private school vouchers, while both promised to tweak the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) programme to make it more effective.

The USA Today report is at this web page.

An article on Barrack Obama and school choice is at this web page.

School choice programmes would benefit low-income families

The Education Forum argues that if school choice programmes were more widely available then more parents would be able to choose private education for their children, if they wanted to. The stories below illustrate how private schools or tuition are wanted by, or would be of value to, increasing numbers of parents.

More than half British parents would choose private schools

The number of British parents who say they would send their children to a private school if they could afford to has jumped, says a report in the Financial Times.

Some 57 percent of parents would educate their child privately if they had the means, according to a survey for the Independent Schools Council. This is up from 48 percent in 2004.

The most common reason was “better standards” at private schools, cited by 66 percent of parents, the Financial Times said.

Among Labour voters in England, 54 percent would use a private school if they could, while the most likely group to favour private schools was Britain’s skilled working classes.

The Financial Times story is at this web page.

Private schools benefit low-income family, study finds

Low-income families with children at inexpensive private schools say their children do better academically and experience fewer social problems than children at public schools, according to a survey published this month by independent Canadian research organisation the Fraser Institute.

Further information is at this web page.

Koreans splash out on private tuition, reflecting 'public zeal for education'

Korean households spend US$12 billion a year on private after-school education, the Chosun Ilbo reports.

Spending on private educational institutes – from cram schools to art and music academies – had grown significantly on the back of rising tuition costs, the Seoul daily said.

The first quarter figure jumped 8 percent (US$2.9 billion) compared with the year before, reflecting the Korean public’s zeal for education, said the Chosun Ilbo.

The proportion of family budgets going towards education grew to a record high in this year’s first quarter, taking up over 6 percent of an average household’s budget.

The Chosun Ilbo article is at this web page.