Dan Laitsch, Education Policy Analysis Archives
December 4, 2002
The ASCD's Dan Laitsch wrote this study for the electronic "journal" known as Education Policy Analysis Archives. It's mildly interesting. Says the abstract: "[P]olicy makers generally accept the market arguments used by voucher supporters, but are also sympathetic to equity concerns and funding issues raised by voucher opponents....[W]hile more policy makers responding to this survey supported some type of voucher program than opposed vouchers, when viewed in the broader context of reform options, vouchers did not rate highly." The possible paradox: policy makers are comfortable with vouchers as a reform strategy but have greater enthusiasm for other reforms. It's a thin study, though, considering that only state legislators were surveyed, that just 89 of them bothered to return the survey forms out of the 936 that were mailed, and that only six states were involved (five of them east of the Mississippi and four of them north of the Mason-Dixon line). You can find this online at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n48/.
