Hoxby, C., (2003)

‘School Choice and School Productivity: Could School Choice Be a Tide that Lifts All Boats?’

in Hoxby, C. (ed.), The Economics of School Choice, University of Chicago Press

• Assesses how school choice might affect school productivity, marshalling evidence from several of Hoxby’s previous papers.

Key results:

• Schools facing greater competition, whether from private schools or many nearby public school districts, are found to obtain greater student achievement for the same per-pupil spending.
• I.e. increased competitive pressure on public schools is found to raise school productivity.
• Examining 3 major school choice initiatives (Milwaukee, Michigan and Arizona), Hoxby finds that public schools have a strong, positive productivity response to competition from voucher and charter schools.
• Hoxby concludes that the positive effects of voucher programs on school productivity are likely to overwhelm any negative effects caused by increased sorting by ability. Thus introducing wider school choice could be ‘a tide that lifts all boats’.