Tennessee is expected to pass legislation in 2014 that creates a targeted school voucher plan allowing low-income students from the lowest performing public schools across the state (bottom 5%) to attend participating private schools.  The majority (over 80%) of these targeted low-performing schools and the economically disadvantaged students who qualify for vouchers are in the recently consolidated Shelby County Public School district, making Memphis one of the largest targeted school voucher cities in the U.S.  Eventually there will be 20,000 vouchers and there are currently 111 private schools in Memphis.

LITERATURE:

Extensive research has focused on the characteristics of family participants in school voucher programs (demand side), the differential achievement gains among voucher and non-voucher students (academic outcomes), and the economic impact of voucher programs on urban school districts (economic outcomes).  Limited research has examined the provider or supply-side of voucher programs, beyond the sector or school type. Stuit & Doan (2013) found, in districts with vouchers, that the most common reason cited as the “most important reason” a private school did not participate in a voucher program was the lack of eligible students in the area; with few schools citing too many regulations or test requirements as important.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

Our questions focus on the factors that shape the supply-side of the TN voucher program: the core characteristics (academic; socio-demographic; financial) of schools that participate in a school voucher program and the characteristics of schools that decline to participate in the voucher program; the organizational mission identified among participating schools, and; the market mechanisms and competitive conditions that create incentives (and disincentives) for participating in the TN voucher program. We also explore neighborhood-level socio-demographic conditions using census data, and map proximity of public schools where students qualify for the target vouchers to private schools, as well as cross-city transportation routes that affect access to private schools for low-income students.

METHODS:

Interviews with private school headmasters are utilized with the purpose of uncovering new information relative to the market and mission mechanisms that shape implementation of the targeted school voucher program in Shelby County.  We focus upon the supply side highlighting the “geography of opportunity.”  We probe for: reasons for opting in/out of the voucher; support for economically disadvantaged students; accountability structures, and; schools’ experience working with low performing or high poverty kids. We employ GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to map transportation routes and neighborhood demographics/liabilities in Shelby County as well as the public and private schools using the Common Core of Data and the American Community Survey.

PRELIMINARY RESULTS:

         Our analysis reveals a distributional disconnect between the location of schools where students will be eligible to utilize vouchers (priority schools) and the location of private schools that may (or may not) choose to participate in the program.  Most of the private schools are located a considerable distance from the students who will be eligible for the vouchers.  Memphis is also a unique case in terms of vouchers, as only 20% of the private schools are Catholic.