Researchers have built a substantial body of evidence about policies that use vouchers to fund private schooling, so an honest attempt to bring together that research could have real value. But readers will be disappointed if they look to the Institute for Justice (IJ) for that report.
Christopher Lubienski of Indiana University reviewed the IJ’s report, 12 Myths and Realities about Private Educational Choice Programs.
He considers the merits of each of the 12 claims, and finds that the
report fails to take advantage of this body of research, instead
offering little more than a simplistic and one-sided treatment of the
empirical record.
Setting out 12, often
cartoonishly caricatured, “myths” about vouchers, the report proceeds to
systematically dismiss each myth. The evidence presented in the report
is based largely on previous work from other advocacy groups that
curated evidence—much of it highly questionable—on the advantages of
vouchers. Accordingly, the IJ report repeats earlier advocacy claims,
even when flaws in those works have already been publicly explained. In
doing so, the report makes claims that are not supported, and in fact
sometimes contradicted, by evidence in the sources it cites.
The report provides a
textbook case of echo-chamber advocacy. Professor Lubienski concludes
that it offers nothing useful in furthering our understanding of school
vouchers.
Find the review, by Christopher Lubienski, at:
Find 12 Myths and Realities about Private Educational Choice Programs, edited by Tim Keller and published by the Institute for Justice, at:
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