Louisiana Educator: Louisiana Voucher Students Perform Worse Than Non-Voucher Peers

Louisiana Educator: Louisiana Voucher Students Perform Worse Than Non-Voucher Peers

Louisiana Voucher Students Perform Worse Than Non-Voucher Peers

After 4 years of the Louisiana School Voucher Program, Voucher Students Continue to Perform Lower Than They Would Have if They Had Stayed in Their Public Schools

The University of Arkansas has been studying the Louisiana Voucher Program, which is officially labeled using the more attractive "Scholarship Program". They found that after 4 years the results continue to be disappointing for its boosters. Students in the voucher program continue to do worse than they would have if they had stayed in their original public schools. The researchers were able to draw this conclusion because they used the "gold standard" for research by comparing the voucher results against students who were randomly left out of the program by the lottery process. This provides a true scientific control and therefore more reliable results.
Louisiana's pro-reform media generally ignored this latest study on vouchers, probably because they and the powerful big business lobbyists don't want to report reform failures.
Last week I reported in this blog that The Advocate chose not to report on a bill debated in the Senate Education Committee that would have given local school systems the option to pull out of the Common Core based state standards. My testimony to that committee revealed that since the adoption of the Common Core Based standards 6 years ago, Louisiana students are now performing in last place compared to other states. Technically, we are tied with New Mexico for last place.

The failure of the voucher program was also ignored by most of the larger media sources. It was only reported by a few public radio CONTINUE READING: Louisiana Educator: Louisiana Voucher Students Perform Worse Than Non-Voucher Peers