Private School Vouchers and Tax Credits Don’t Improve Student Outcomes, TC’s Hue | Teachers College Columbia University

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Private School Vouchers and Tax Credits Don’t Improve Student Outcomes, TC’s Huerta Tells Congressional Committee

 

In invited testimony before a hearing of the full House Education and Workforce Committee on February 3rd, Luis Huerta, Associate Professor of Education & Public Policy, asserted that “there is little evidence to support that school voucher or tax credit programs deliver better outcomes for students.” (Read the House committee’s press release on the hearing and Huerta’s testimony.)

At the hearing, titled “Expanding Educational Opportunity through School Choice,” Huerta said that none of the independent studies of the nation’s “most lauded and long-standing voucher programs…found any statistical evidence that children who utilized vouchers performed better than children who did not and remained in public schools.” However, Huerta said there is “evidence to support that compared against students who participate in voucher programs, public school students fare better academically.”

Huerta has studied vouchers  and tuition tax credits extensively. He has found that private school are not more cost effective and efficient at educating all students.

Published Thursday, Feb 11, 2016

Luis Huerta
Luis Huerta, Associate Professor of Education & Public Policy