Taxpayer-funded private school vouchers and market failure: A policy scan and review from 1869 to 2024

Abstract

More than 70 years ago, Milton Friedman argued in favor of vouchers as a policy tool to increase the quality of the nation’s education system. Since then, economists and other education policy researchers have studied several waves of taxpayer-funded private school voucher policies that have emerged. Too often, these researchers have ignored the policy history of vouchers or adequately described market theories and assumptions of competitive markets as they evaluated the impact of voucher programs on student outcomes. In this article, we provide a comprehensive review and analysis of state-legislated voucher policies in the United States from 1869 to 2024, which includes a policy scan of historical and contemporary voucher legislation and the extent to which vouchers successfully established education marketplaces that produced efficient and valued educational outcomes. We found little evidence that private school vouchers created markets that produced valued educational outcomes. In many cases, policymakers used vouchers as a tool to maintain racial segregation or the programs failed to increase student achievement outcomes. We detail how these failures underscore how education markets do not meet basic assumptions of competitive markets. This article concludes with recommendations for education policy researchers and next generation research related to private school vouchers.