D.C. Schools That Take Vouchers Found to Be Less Racially Isolated

A new study of the federal voucher program in the District of Columbia finds that private schools that accept students using the government tuition aid have more racial integration than the city’s public schools.

At the same time, the report’s authors detected no academic impact on nearby public schools after the program’s first year. Some voucher advocates argue that one benefit of the aid for private school tuition is that it may pressure public schools to improve.

“[T]he participating private schools were much less likely to be racially homogeneous” than the city’s public schools, said Jay P. Greene, an education professor at the University of Arkansas and a senior fellow at the New York City-based Manhattan Institute. “It’s not as if integration in the participating private schools is wonderful,...