Cato Institute, September 10, 2001
The Cato Institute recently released a pair of reports in its Briefing Papers series detailing the successes of longstanding school voucher systems in Maine and Vermont. The programs, similar in structure and administration, have existed for approximately 130 years in these states. The Maine program grants tuition stipends - redeemable at public and private schools - to families living in towns too small or remote to support their own public school systems. In accord with the theory that the more experience people have with vouchers, the more they are inclined to support them, the citizens of Maine have repeatedly voted to continue the program, which has been deemed "the most valued attribute" of living in the Pine Tree State. The Vermont report finds similar levels of support for the Green Mountain State's program. Both reports include responses to many of the arguments made by school choice opponents. Lessons from Vermont: 132-Year-Old Voucher Program Rebuts Critics, by Libby Sternberg, is available at http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-067es.html; for Lessons from Maine: Education Vouchers for Students since 1873, by Frank Heller, see http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-066es.html. Hard copies are available for $2 apiece from the Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001; 202-842-0200; fax 202-842-3490.
