Elite School Non-Participation Filter
Observational StudyReview
Universal secondary voucher programs often fail to integrate low-income students into elite private institutions when those elite schools opt out of accepting public vouchers to maintain high tuition fees and lower student-teacher ratios.
Picture this
Think of a luxury sports club that refuses to accept public fitness vouchers because accepting them would force the club to lower its membership fees and crowd its facilities. Consequently, public vouchers are accepted mainly by budget and mid-tier private clubs catering to cost-conscious families.
What the evidence says
Fewer than 50% of private secondary schools accepted the voucher; non-participating elite schools charged substantially higher tuition and maintained significantly higher teacher-pupil ratios, restricting voucher usage to low-to-middle income private schools.
- Who was studied
- N = 1,300 private secondary schools serving students in Bogotá, Colombia.
- How
- Cross-sectional institutional analysis comparing participating and non-participating private secondary schools in the PACES voucher program.
What to do
Account for institutional opt-out decisions among elite private schools when modeling the socio-economic integration effects of secondary voucher programs.
From the source
"Students receiving the voucher could attend any private school that accepted the voucher; however, many schools, particularly the elite private schools in Colombia, would not accept the voucher. Slightly less than half of private secondary schools participated in the voucher program."
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