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Growing Income Disparity in Education: Looking at Vouchers and Charter Schools
Tony Orndoff
EDTP 645
UMUC

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The notion of publicly funded education in the United States goes back even before there
was a United States. Boston Latin, the oldest public school still in existence in the United States,
was established in 1635, more than one hundred and fifty years before the drafting of the
Constitution (BLS History). While education in Europe had been limited to a privileged few,
most colonists and early Americans believed that educating the public, at public expense, was an
investment worth making. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to his mentor George Wythe in 1783
spelled out the need for an educated populace. “Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against
ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen
know…that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of
what will be paid to kings, priests, and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people
in ignorance” (Quotations on Education).
Today, while the purpose of public education has expanded to meet our modern times,
the idea of public education as the linchpin of democracy remains as relevant as ever.
Unfortunately, economic realities in the United States are making it more difficult than ever to
meet this goal. As we see a widening of the gap between rich and poor, we see a widening
“achievement gap” as well. If the goal of public education in the United States is to provide a
level playing field, than the chasm between the haves and have-nots is a major challenge to
meeting this goal. This paper will explore how the gap between the rich and poor has negatively
impacted the quality of education in the Unites States. Further, two solutions, vouchers and
charter schools, will be offered as a way to meet this challenge.
The shift in the United States away from a manufacturing economy to a service economy
helps to explain the growing income gap. Reardon (2013) makes note of this, stating “Largely
gone are the manufacturing jobs that provided a middle-class wage without a college degree” (p.

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14). Today, American workers fall into one of two categories: the “high-skill, high-wage
information sector,” and the “low-skill, low-wage sector” (Reardon, 2013, p 14). Americans in
the information sector are not only doing better than those in the low-skill sector, but are
outpacing these individuals at record levels. “In 1970, a family with school-age children at the
90th percentile of the family income distribution earned 5 times as much as a family at the 10th
percentile; today, the high-income family earns 11 times more than the low-income family”
(Reardon, 2013, p. 13). This scenario creates essentially two Americas, one wealthy, and one
poor, with an ever-shrinking middle class. Along with this gap in income, comes an
“achievement gap” in education as well.
As the income gap has increased over the last 60 years, so too has the average difference
in standardized test scores, even at a time when the difference between black and white tests
scores is decreasing (Reardon, 2013, p. 12). Further, not only is this apparent in standardized
test scores, but in other measures of academic success as well. Higher-income students are more
likely to complete college and more likely to enroll in prestigious colleges and universities.
What is arguably worse is the gap in “behaviors related to civil engagement, such as participating
in extracurricular activities, sports, and academic clubs; volunteering and participating in
community life; and self-reports of social trust” (Reardon, 2013, p. 12).
How can the United States combat this disturbing trend? An increase in spending sounds
like an obvious solution, although the answer is not that simple. It’s not necessarily a lack of
money that is at the heart of this problem, but an unequal distribution of this money. We must
“do more to ensure that all students have equal access to high-quality teachers, stimulating
curriculum and instruction, and adequate school resources (computers, libraries, and the like)”
(Reardon, 2013, p. 15). Both of the solutions offered in this paper, school vouchers and charter

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schools, revolve around the same concept: offering poor parents the same choices as rich parents
when it comes to educating their children.
A school voucher program provides state-funded scholarships that help students pay to
attend private schools which meet state-mandated requirements. Usually, students eligible for
these programs are low-income, although some states provide for students attending low-performing
schools or students with disabilities (School Vouchers, ncsl.org). The idea behind
this concept is two-fold. Low-income students will be given an educational opportunity
normally reserved for wealthier students and that public schools, now competing with private
schools for funding dollars, will improve their academic regimen. While this is a controversial
idea, and one that many supporters of public education have considered a non-starter, voucher
programs have seen some success.
One of the most successful school voucher programs in the United States is in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Beginning as a pilot program in 1991, the Milwaukee Parental Choice
Program (MPCP) has been reauthorized several times, giving students who otherwise would not
have the chance to attend private schools. Cowen, et. al. (2013) recently published an analysis
which details the positive benefits of this program. Going beyond standardized test scores,
Cowen (2013) looked at the idea of “attainment” as a measure of educational success.
“Educational attainment [reaching a given level of schooling] is an important indicator for school
quality because it may be a direct result of the development of academic and life skills related to
a variety of valuable outcomes of interest to policymakers and employers” (Cowen, et. al., 2013,
p. 148). What was discovered was that students who used the voucher program to attend private
school “were more likely to graduate high school…[and] also more likely to enroll in a 4-year
postsecondary institution after graduating…” (Cowen, et. al., 2013, p. 161).

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For some, the idea of turning over public dollars to private schools is troubling, especially
when considering the religious-ties of some private schools. Rather than a voucher system,
another form of education reform based on parental choice lies with charter schools. While a
charter school is a public school, it differs in the manner in which it attempts to reach desired
educational outcomes. “The state may specify student outcomes, but determining how the
school operates should be up to the people who establish and operate it. The charter school
concept trades bureaucracy for accountability, regulation for results” (Nathan, 2005, p. 111).
The advantage of charter schools is the flexibility that teachers and community members
have in reaching state-mandated goals. Rather than traditional methods, charter schools are free
to experiment with their curriculum. The Minnesota New Country School uses a project-based
learning as its primary approach. “Instead, its 120 grade 7-12 students work with their families
and an advisor to develop an individual plan that helps them meet their own needs and interests,
and that also satisfies performance-based graduation requirements” (Nathan, 2005, p. 115).
Not only do those attending charter schools see improved performance, but like voucher
programs, competition from charter schools encourages traditional public schools to innovate in
order to retain students. When a district in Minnesota noticed that nearby Hope Charter School
was incorporating studies of the Hmong culture, the district adapted its programs to
accommodate Hmong parents who might flee the district to attend the charter school. Public
schools in Boston have also given parents and educators more flexibility in order to compete
with nearby charter schools (Nathan, 2005, p. 115).
American education is at a crossroads. What was once a great equalizer, ensuring that
individuals across the social stratum had equal opportunity to contribute to the body politic, has

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become an increasingly divergent system in which separate is unequal. If American education is
to live up to these lofty ideals, it must embrace reforms that it has not previously been willing to
consider. Two of these solutions are school vouchers and charter schools. Both vouchers and
charter schools give all parents, not just wealthy ones, the chance to choose the best educational
program for his or her child. By providing these choices, we are providing the best hope that the
American public will continue to be educated, engaged, and vibrant.
References
BLS History. Boston Latin School. www.bls.org.
Cowen, J., Fleming, D., Witte, J., Wolf, P., Kisida, B. (2013). School vouchers and student
attainment: Evidence from a state-mandated study of Milwaukee’s parental choice
program. The Policy Studies Journal, 41, 147-168.
Nathan, J. (2005). Charters “yes!” vouchers “no!.” Educational Horizons. Winter, 2005. 110-
124).
Quotations on Education. Thomas Jefferson Monticello. www.monticello.org.
Reardon, S. (2013). The widening income achievement gap. Educational Leadership. May, 2013.
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