A new study from the Urban Institute reports significant benefits for male students who participated in EdChoice, Ohio’s school choice voucher program.
Young men are struggling academically, mentally, socially, and financially, according to a recent report from The New York Times.
Many will blame the usual victims — screentime, absentee fathers, toxic masculinity — and move on. But Ohio’s EdChoice voucher program offers hope and shows when given real choice, boys, especially those most at risk, are not just catching up; they’re leaping ahead.
The latest study, conducted by the left-of-center Urban Institute, tracked more than 6,000 students who used vouchers to attend private schools in Ohio, comparing them to more than half a million similar public-school peers. Enacted more than 20 years ago, the program is comprehensive. For parents like me, who are making decisions that will affect our children’s future, this study is golden. It proves that more options lead to better outcomes. Boys are helped more than any group.
Over the past decade, the gender gap in higher education has grown into a full-blown crisis for boys. Nationwide, college enrollment among men has dropped by more than 157,000 in the last five years, a nearly 6 percent decline. Today, men make up only about 43 percent of college students, down from 47 percent in 2011. Not only are boys foregoing college, but they’re also 7 percent more likely than women to drop out. Lack of college attendance is not inherently bad; however, the disproportion of college-educated women to college-educated men further lowers already declining marriage rates.
The Urban Institute’s new study shows that giving students — especially boys — access to private schools through vouchers can dramatically change their trajectory. Male students who participated in EdChoice were 86 percent more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than their public school peers, and the program’s positive effects on college enrollment and graduation were strongest for boys, black students, and those from low-income backgrounds.
At a time when fewer young men are making it to and through college, these results suggest that expanding educational choice could be a powerful tool for reversing the slide and opening new doors for boys who have too often been left behind.
For boys in the Ohio study, school choice didn’t just close gaps – it flipped the script. As a parent trying to decide what schools to choose for my own sons, I see the concern about boys’ academic achievement. I see it in their parents and in the policymakers trying to solve the problem.
Test Scores Don’t Appropriately Measure Success
For decades now, we have cultivated a near-universal reliance on standardized test scores as the primary measure of school quality and student success. The EdChoice data reveals flaws in this assumption. While students who used vouchers to attend private schools saw lower test scores in the short run, they achieved significantly higher rates of college enrollment and graduation in the long run.
This narrative plays out across the country. States that boldly embrace school choice are cultivating an environment of academic and career success, going beyond the false oracle of multiple-choice test bubbles and equipping students with more difficult-to-measure-and-micromanage qualities such as grit, curiosity, and a sense that tomorrow is worth planning for.
EdChoice Guarantees Long-term Outcomes
While test scores may provide some insight into student learning, the Ohio results underscore the need for a more holistic approach to evaluating educational success — one that looks beyond short-term metrics and considers the long-term outcomes that truly matter. Among students old enough to have potentially completed a bachelor’s degree, 23 percent of EdChoice participants graduated, versus 15 percent of similar public school students. This nine percentage-point difference translates to a 60 percent higher graduation rate for EdChoice students.
The EdChoice program also increased students’ likelihood of remaining in public schools eligible for EdChoice and of graduating college. This replicates similar outcomes we have seen among students in school choice-rich Florida and suggests that the program’s positive effects extended beyond just the students who used vouchers to attend private schools.
As parents, we are running out of patience for hand-wringing and endless think pieces about America’s forgotten students when we have finally discovered something that helps the so-called “lost boys.” We are ready for policies that provide positive, long-term results. We are ready for action, and that’s what school choice provides. As a mom raising two boys and helping other parents navigate their options, I see the stakes every day. Families need options. Ohio handed them one and quietly produced thousands more young men ready to succeed in the 21st century. The boys weren’t broken. The system was.
Elizabeth BeShears is the National Director of Implementation Marketing for the American Federation for Children and is a beneficiary of school choice herself.
Jesus Christ is King
Comments are closed.