In areas where vouchers have been introduced, public schools have had their funds drastically cut. These diversions leave public schools students with less money for textbooks, computers, and supplies. These sound perfectly harmless, but their impact on public schools can be just as damaging as vouchers funded by taxpaper dollars. Public schools lose state funding when students leave to attend voucher schools. Students in voucher schools perform better than public school students.
Private schools rank no better scholastically than comparable public schools.
Official studies of voucher plans in Cleveland and Milwaukee conclude that vouchers don't improve overall student achievement. In Milwaukee, Professor Alex Molnar's comparison of student achievement found that public school students attending schools with smaller class sizes registered greater achievement gains than students in the voucher schools. The public supports vouchers. Given the choice, an overwhelming majority of Americans would rather improve public schools than pay for vouchers. Both polls show that Americans would rather invest in improving public schools than bankroll private school tuition with tax dollars.