A new working paper by Patrick Wolf at the University of Arkansas and Corey DeAngelis of the Cato Institute suggests that school choice in Milwaukee leads to reduced adult criminal activity and fewer paternity suits by ages 25 to 28.

Researchers find that enrolling in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program by 8th or 9th grade has “a highly statistically significant effect on reducing the number of drug convictions” and “a statistically significant effect on reducing property damage convictions and paternity suits.”

Specifically, participation in the program is equivalent to a 53 percent reduction in drug convictions, an 86 percent reduction in property damage convictions, and a 38 percent reduction in paternity suits.

So-called “character skills” are difficult to measure in the short term, and they are the often forgotten outputs of our educational system. Typically, researchers evaluate school choice programs based on the test scores of participating students. For the MPCP, test score gains were limited. Yet this study suggests that the MPCP positively affects other crucial long-term outcomes.

Researchers Wolf and DeAngelis believe that test scores are only one piece of the school choice evaluation puzzle.

“We shouldn't be worried if a school choice program doesn't improve test scores in the short run because what really matters is long-term success. Standardized test scores are supposed to be proxies for long-run success. But a substantial body of evidence suggests that they aren't,” DeAngelis told me.

DeAngelis also believes that more research into the impact of choice on “character skills” is required.



“Education policy evaluations have focused on test scores for way too long, probably because standardized test scores are easily accessible and mandated by the state. It's much more difficult to look up criminal records than to look up test scores. Other analyses of school choice programs have looked at nontest score outcomes such as high school graduation, college enrollment, tolerance, political knowledge, voting activity, charitable activity, voluntarism, safety, and mental health.”



“The scientific evidence also tends to suggest that private school choice improves nonacademic outcomes much more than test scores. This might be because families choose schools based on things like safety, culture, and civics, rather than standardized test scores. It's almost as if families know what their own kids need more than bureaucrats,” he concluded.

The MPCP launched in 1990 to test the concept of private school vouchers for low-income urban students. By the 2014-2015 school year, the program enrolled 25 percent of all K-12 students in Milwaukee. In the 2017-2018 school year, 133 private or sectarian schools participated in the program.

Kate Hardiman is a contributor to Red Alert Politics. She is pursuing a master's in education from Notre Dame University and teaches English and religion at a high school in Chicago.