Study Finds School Choice Closes Low-Income Student Performance Gap

A new report by the Progressive Policy Institute reveals that school choice has significantly narrowed the academic performance gap between low-income students and their more affluent peers. The report highlights the positive impact of public charter schools in driving academic improvements across entire school districts. In cities such as Camden, New Jersey, Washington, and Indianapolis, the achievement gap between low-income students and their counterparts was reduced by 42 percent, 38 percent, and 23 percent respectively. The proportion of students attending charter schools in these cities increased, resulting in improved performance among low-income pupils. Nonwhite students are among the most significant beneficiaries of school choice, accounting for 70 percent of charter school pupils in the cities surveyed. Charter schools are publicly funded, tuition-free, and accessible to all students, but differ from traditional public schools in their operational flexibility and governance. The report emphasizes the substantial increases in academic performance observed in cities with a significant number of charter schools, particularly among low-income students. A key factor driving this progress is the higher accountability standards to which charter schools are held, which creates a system in which underperforming schools are either improved or replaced by higher-performing ones. The report also recognizes a "spillover effect" in cities that have robust educational choice programs, where competition among schools fosters improvement throughout the entire system. Additionally, the option of homeschooling is growing in popularity with parents across the nation, with 90 percent of states reporting data seeing an increase in homeschooling in the 2023-2024 school year.