Hyun-Ki Shim
Florida State University
Abstract
This study examines the impact of the Florida Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), a school-based voucher program, on change in total enrollment and share of disadvantaged students by measuring the effect on timing of treatment: immediate effect, lagged effect, and cumulative effect. By collecting school- and district-level time-varying controls from the Census, Common Core of Data, and Florida Department of Education, this study constructed a panel dataset consisting of 1,945 Florida public elementary schools across 67 districts, spanning 2011 through 2016. In general, this study found a negative impact on total school enrollment change, but positive change on free-reduced lunch (FRL) share in enrollment. The negative effect of OSP was only significant within one more year when additional time indicators were included in the analysis. On the other hand, the FRL share shows no significant change from the immediate and lagged effects. All in all, OSP eligibility has a negative impact on total enrollment change which implies that underperforming schools experienced greater student displacement than other schools.
Citation
Shim, H-K. (2019). The Effect of a Statewide School Voucher Program on School Enrollment Change Using Difference-in-Differences Methods. Florida Journal of Educational Research, 57(3), 1-22.
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