ABSTRACT
Th is chapter describes the empirical evidence on the eff ectiveness of school vouchers in the places-the United States and abroad-in which voucher systems have been introduced. It presents some theoretical arguments for and against vouchers, and describes their implications for measuring school voucher outcomes. Th e chapter then summarizes the major domestic and foreign public-and privately-funded voucher programs and details the evidence on the outcomes of these policies. It considers academic and non-academic outcomes of program participants, as well as the eff ects of voucher programs on the broader education sector. Th e broad evidence indicates that vouchers improve school satisfaction for users; they may have positive test score benefi ts for some segments of the U.S. population; and there may be some positive spillovers to the overall public school population. However, potential increases in stratifi cation and test score distributions in a system present cause for caution, and the lack of knowledge about the eff ects of a larger-scale program in the United States suggests that any attempts to increase the scale of voucher systems in this country should be very judicious.
