Proposition 38, the voucher initiative on the November ballot, would be far more expensive and affect many fewer students than other proven education reforms, such as reducing class size, according to a new report by the Policy Analysis for California Education group (PACE).
The research team, which includes respected academics from the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University, found that reducing class size in California costs half as much per year as Proposition 38 would, while serving three times as many students. California's class size reduction effort costs approximately $1.4 billion and improves educational opportunity for 1.9 million students. By contrast, the researchers projected private school tuition vouchers would cost about $3 billion to serve 650,000 students.
The report notes that vouchers offer parents the promise - not the reality - of new choice options. The research team estimates that, statewide, only about 60,000 slots exist for voucher-bearing students. California public school enrollment is presently almost 6 million.
"A Costly Gamble or Serious Reform?" by Bruce Fuller, Luis Huerta and David Ruenzel re-analyzes the results of a study of private scholarships in New York City, Dayton, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., by Paul Peterson and others. The PACE research team found that achievement gains for students who moved from public to private schools were uneven - with only some students benefiting, only in math, and only in certain grades.