Given the virulent opposition of the teacher unions to any and all forms of school choice, how is it that a pilot school voucher program was enacted in Cleveland, Ohio? A September 1998 publication of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions provides a convenient background review of the program’s inception, implementation, and results to date.
Giving Choice a Chance: Cleveland and the Future of School Reform contrasts Ohio’s legislative success for school choice with ballot failures elsewhere and gives the Cleveland voucher program high marks for gains in parental satisfaction and student achievement. The report also examines the legal issues likely to confront both the voucher program in Cleveland and similar efforts being promoted nationally, such as the pilot voucher program that congressional Republicans have proposed for the nation’s capital.
“Public school reformers across the county can use the lessons from Cleveland to effect real change in their states,” says Buckeye Institute President Richard C. Leonardi. The Buckeye Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization based in Dayton, Ohio.
For more information …
Copies of the Buckeye report, Giving Choice a Chance: Cleveland and the Future of School Reform, are available from the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, 131 North Ludlow Street #317, Dayton, OH 45402, 937/224-8352, email [email protected]. The report also is available through PolicyBot. Point your Web browser to http://www.heartland.org, click on the PolicyBot icon, and search for old documents #2184439 (part 1, 18 pp.); #2184440 (part 2, 14 pp.); and #2184441 (part 3, 16 pp.)
