School Choice Reduces Crime and Paternity Suits

One of the original arguments for a government-run education system is thatpublic schools are necessary for stable democratic society. After all, self-interested families might send their children to private schools that specialize in maximizing earnings rather than citizenship skills. But new evidence suggests that private schools are actually more conducive to maintaining social order than public schools. Here ’s why.Thenew study - coauthored by Dr. Patrick J. Wolf and me - used student-level data from the longitudinal evaluation of the longest-running private school voucher program in the United States. We found that students using a voucher to attend a private school in 8th or 9th grade were convicted of fewer crimes and were involved in fewer paternity suits than their public school peers by 25 to 28 years of age.As shown in the figure below, students using the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) were found guilty of 60% fewer property damage crimes, 41% fewer drug-related crimes, and experienced 31% fewer paternity suits as young adults than their carefully matched peers in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).MPCP Effects!function(e,t,s,i){var n= " InfogramEmbeds " ,o=e.getElementsByTagName( " script " )[0],d=/^http:/.test(e.location)? " http: " : " https: " ;if(/^\/{2}/.test(i)&&(i=d+i),window[n]&&window[n].initialized)window[n].process&&window[n].process();else if(!e.getElementById(s)){var r=e.createElement( " script " );r.async=1,r.id=s,r.src=i,o.parentNode.insertB...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs