Universal Vouchers and Racial Segregation

Eric J. Brunner (), Jennifer Imazeki and Stephen Ross ()

No 2006-01, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

Abstract: Opponents of school vouchers often argue that school vouchers will lead to .white flight. from public schools that are disproportionately non-white, creating more racially segregated schools. In this paper, we present new evidence on whether universal vouchers will lead to a systematic departure of whites from predominantly minority schools increasing racial segregation in those schools. Specifically, we use data on vote outcomes from a state-wide universal voucher initiative to estimate the likelihood that white households with children currently in public schools will use vouchers to switch out of more-integrated schools. Our results indicate that white households with children attending schools with large concentrations of non-white schoolchildren are significantly more likely to support school vouchers, an effect that is absent for non-white households with children and households without children. Finally, follow-up analyses suggest that this result is driven less by race, per se, but more by other student characteristics that are correlated with race.

JEL-codes: H3 I2 R2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-pbe and nep-ure
Date: 2006-01, Revised 2008-08
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uct:uconnp:2006-01

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