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Argument: Voucher competition spurs schools to improve academic achievement

Issue Report: Education vouchers

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Caroline M. Hoxby. “How School Choice Affects the Achievement of Public School Students”. Chapter 6 – This tendency is so strong that we often say that an organization has “become more competitive” when what we really mean is that it has become more efficient or productive in response to competition. Thus, it is not only possible, but likely, that regular public schools will respond to competition from choice schools by raising their pupils’ achievement or raising another pupil outcome valued by parents. Better outcomes are the way in which a regular public school would evince increased efficiency. This is because existing choice reforms are designed so that per pupil spending in the regular public schools cannot fall when a student leaves to attend a choice school. In fact, under all but one existing reform, a regular public school’s per pupil spending actually rises when a student leaves.