Competition Among Schools

This chapter considers research on the effects of competition between private and public schools. It focuses on three questions: (1) Do children experience higher achievement gains in private school? (2) If so, is this because private schools are more productive? (3) Does competition from private schools raise public school productivity and/or otherwise affect those “left behind†? The chapter shows that unless each of these questions is answered, one cannot form a full assessment on the desirability of private school entry. Voucher experiments suggest that question 1 can be answered in the affirmative for some subgroups and in some contexts. Such work cannot typically isolate channels, however, and hence does not address question 2. Question 3 has been primarily studied by papers on large-scale voucher programs. These suggest that private school entry results in nonrandom sorting of students, but are less clear on the effects. The bottom line is that despite demand for clear, simple conclusions on the effects of competition from private schools, research does not yet provide these.