新作坊

The civic side of school choice: an empirical analysis of civic education in public and private schools

摘要：

Given that public spending on elementary and secondary education is at least partly justified as a means to "impart the knowledge and skills of citizenship" and "inculcate a set of civic values," it is imperative to ask how a major reform like the widespread availability of publicly-funded vouchers will affect those aims. This paper compares the civic attitudes and behavior of students in private and public schools, using data from a large national telephone survey of parents and their adolescent children. A survey of students currently enrolled in private schools demonstrates that when compared to public school students, they are more likely to engage in community service, develop civic skills in school, express confidence in being able to use those skills, exhibit greater political knowledge, and express a greater degree of political tolerance. Based on these findings, it would appear that when compared to their publicly educated peers, students in private schools generally perform better on multiple indicators of their civic education.