This year, ProPublica is examining Arizona’s “universal” school voucher program: open to all families, no matter their income. More than 12 other states have enacted, or are trying to enact, initiatives modeled in part after Arizona. Here’s what we found: In the Phoenix metro area, neighborhoods with high poverty have very low rates of school voucher use. For some families, private schools just aren’t accessible because of high tuition and fees, even with a voucher.
Working-class parents in the Phoenix area told us they liked the idea of using school vouchers to send their children to private schools. But logistical obstacles, like distance and transportation, would make such a choice practically impossible.
Arizona’s system isn’t designed to provide low-income families with more school choice, said one voucher advocate. “If you were going to design a program that really wanted to unlock private school choice … you would design it very differently.”
In the Phoenix metro area, ProPublica found that the poorer the ZIP code, the fewer school vouchers are being used. One reason? Only six of the county’s 200+ private schools are in areas where families earn less than 50% of the county’s median income.
In one low-income Phoenix ZIP code, ProPublica estimates that only one voucher was used per 100 kids. That’s compared with a wealthy ZIP code where an estimated 28 vouchers were used per 100 kids.
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