UF Researcher: Florida Public Schools Respond Well To Voucher Survey

June 6, 2000

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida’s public schools are flocking to answer questions in the first large-scale study of the effects of vouchers on both students who use them and those who do not, says a University of Florida researcher.

“People who are critical of public schools say they’re not interested in being studied, but it seems that the very high response rates we’ve had from public schools so far suggest that public school administrators are actually very eager to be evaluated,” said David Figlio, a UF economics professor leading the research.

More than three out of four Florida public schools have answered the surveys, with the response rate for some districts reaching 100 percent. Return rates for others, including the more populous Miami-Dade and Broward districts, although still high, are somewhat lower, probably because they receive lots of surveys, Figlio said.

Private schools — among the potential recipients of voucher students — have lower response rates than public schools, perhaps because of differences in the two systems, he said.

“It could be that public schools are more accustomed to reporting on school policies and practices than private schools, so the reporting burden for them is less,” he said.

Working with researchers from Princeton University and the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute, Figlio said his study is in the national spotlight.

“Education is the No. 1 quality of life issue to Americans today, and school choice the No. 1 policy issue within education,” Figlio said. “There’s been an awful lot of rhetoric on both sides of the political spectrum but very little evidence either in favor of or opposition to school vouchers, in part, because there have been only small-scale experiments where it’s impossible to see the true systemic effects of vouchers.”

The subject has become an issue in the presidential campaign, with Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush staunchly supporting vouchers and Democratic candidate Al Gore opposing them. But the first results from the Florida study likely won’t be available until 2002, long after the campaign is over, Figlio said.

“We know that school vouchers are one of the flashpoints between Bush and Gore, but it would really be premature to begin talking about the effects of school vouchers in Florida anytime close to the presidential election,” he said.

Under Florida’s program, all public schools receive letter grades from A to F. Students can get vouchers to attend private or other public schools if the school they attend is rated “F” for two out of four years. Statewide during the 1999-2000 school year, 78 schools received such a grade. Two F-rated Pensacola schools had been on the state’s critically low performing schools list, making their students eligible for opportunity scholarships, or vouchers, this academic year, Figlio said. Students in the other 76 schools, as well as two D-rated schools, may become eligible this summer, he said.

The next round of school grades is due out later this month.

The survey — mailed to every school district in the state in February — looks at whether vouchers and school grades change the way various schools do business, Figlio said. It examines issues such as whether there are any changes in class size, how students are grouped and professional development policies for teachers, he said.

Another round of surveys has been mailed out with the hope of receiving a higher return rate, Figlio said. “Our goal is 100 percent,” he said. “We’re not going to get 100 percent, but our goal is to get as large a number as possible.”

Federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, and private foundations, such as the Smith Richardson Foundation and Spencer Foundations — none of which have taken a position on the voucher issue — are funding the research project, which has received commitments of more than $1 million per year for the first three years of the project.

A recent court decision saying Florida’s voucher program violates the state constitution will have no bearing on the study’s progress, Figlio said.

“We figure this program will be tied up in the court for years,” he said. “That doesn’t mean you can’t start an evaluation of it. The stakes are too high not to.”