Paul T. Hill, Center on Reinventing Public Education September 2003
This informative report is written not to praise or criticize voucher programs but to analyze the various administrative hurdles to their successful implementation and evaluation. Using Cleveland and Milwaukee as examples, Hill discusses pitfalls of voucher program administration, including: poor data collection systems that make it difficulty to accurately assess student eligibility and track progress; the lack of a suitable control group that would make it possible to evaluate the impact of the program; the inclusion of parents who will only send their child to one specific private school, and then resort to their local public school if they don't get their top choice; and so on. Though this report breaks no new ground, it provides a worth summary of information for anybody seriously interested in the challenges of mounting an effective voucher program. You can view it at http://www.crpe.org/pubs/pdf/AdminCostsVouchers_web.pdf
