A new study from the University of Arkansas examines the relationship between Milwaukee’s citywide school voucher program and students’ criminal behavior.
Controlling for factors such as family income, parental education, and the presence of two parents in the home, the authors used data from Wisconsin court records to compare the criminal behavior of voucher students with non-voucher students. The groups, comprising some two thousand students, were enrolled in eighth or ninth grade in 2006 as part of Milwaukee’s Parental Choice Program (MPCP) and the Milwaukee Public School (MPS) system.
The study first analyzed only pupils who were enrolled in MPCP and MPS in 2006, regardless of how long they stayed in the program, and found no statistically significant results. Next, the researchers measured the effects of a “full dose” of voucher program treatment (i.e., students who were enrolled in 2006 and stayed through the twelfth grade). These students were found to be 5–7 percent less likely to commit a misdemeanor, 2–3 percent less likely to commit a felony, and 5–12 percent less likely to be accused of any crime as young adults. (Participants were between twenty-two and twenty-five years old at the time the data were analyzed.) In other words, the longer a student stayed in a voucher program, the less likely he or she was to participate in criminal activity, suggesting that “sustained exposure” to a voucher program helps decrease criminality.
The authors do offer a few caveats: First, assignment of vouchers was not random; most of the grades in voucher schools were not oversubscribed and thus did not require lotteries to admit students. Second, they believe that it would be helpful to understand more about non-cognitive factors like grit and conscientiousness, which might affect a student’s propensity to break the law. Finally, these results are specific to Milwaukee’s voucher program and are therefore difficult to apply nationally.
Though there is extant literature on the correlation between higher levels of education and a person’s likelihood to commit crime, further research into the potential link between school choice and criminal activity (and what characteristics or factors may be driving those interactions) would be helpful.
SOURCE: Corey DeAngelis and Patrick J. Wolf, “The School Choice Voucher: A “Get Out of Jail” Card?,” Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas (January 2016).
