School Choice Increases Earnings in Colombia

There ’s an ongoing debate about how we should evaluate the effectiveness of school choice policies. Last month, two education professorsarguedthat standardized test scores should be “the measure of success.”Othereducation researchers–includingmyself– contend that we should take a more holistic approach by looking at other relevant long-term outcomes as well. After all, schools can do so much more than shape test scores. Here’s a case in point.Ajust-released evaluation found that a school choice program Colombia improved vital long-run outcomes up to 20 years after students applied for private school vouchers in 1994.Students who won a#SchoolChoice lottery placement in a private vocational high school in Colombia showed large labor market benefits up to 20 years later compared to the control group@DeAngelisCorey@BobBowdon@JasonBedrick@lina_anaya@MQ_McShanehttps://t.co/ipBrLVawol— Patrick Wolf (@P_Diddy_Wolf)August 8, 2019The research team, led byStanford University ’s Eric Bettinger, found that winning a lottery to use a voucher to attend a private school in 6th grade increased earnings by 8 percent overall and 11 percent for females by the time the students reached around 33 years of age. In other words, it looks like school choice could help close thegender wage gap in Colombia. The program also increased adult earnings by 17 percent for students who applied to vocational schools.Higher earnings should be enough to demonstrate this voucher program ’s succe...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs