Tyler Cowen links to a Cato book that he calls "a good introduction to the empirical literature on vouchers and charter schools." The book, according to Amazon, shows that "The consensus of this research overwhelmingly favors competition and parental choice in education." On the other hand, a recent RAND book on the very same subject concludes, "In the end the evidence shows nothing, but it doesn't refute anything either." And over at EPI, we get Helen Ladd, of Duke University, saying, "On average, students who use vouchers to switch to private schools achieve at no higher levels than those who remain in the public schools. So much for the view that the autonomy of private schools makes them more effective."
One thing that is a bit unclear to me is why Congress doesn't have the courage of its convictions. In other words, why don't they appropriate massive amounts of money for two grand experiments, one testing a conservative education solution, the other implementing an ideal-world progressive alternative. Convince some demographically similar, money-hungry localities to take the funds and create the programs, and then see what happens. It may not settle the debate, but at least we'd have more data. And in general, you'd think you could get these bills through, so long as they twinned conservative and progressive solutions.
