[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-576703-105":59,"doc-detail-576703-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","ideology-over-evidence-the-truth-about-vouchers-and-how-they-harm-students","Ideology Over Evidence - The Truth About Vouchers and How They Harm Students","","Ideology Over Evidence examines school voucher programs that use tax dollars to fund private schooling and argues that growing investments outweigh the mounting research record against these programs. Drawing on Josh Cowen’s experience and the evidence presented as seven results, the text highlights how voucher policies disproportionately benefit students who were never in public school and how larger, more recent voucher programs correlate with worse academic outcomes. It attributes voucher expansion to concentrated wealth, ideological networks, and research funding that struggles to alter core empirical findings.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/ideology-over-evidence-the-truth-about-vouchers-and-how-they-harm-students/576703/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/ideology-over-evidence-the-truth-about-vouchers-and-how-they-harm-students/576703.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Himbo","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What issue does Ideology Over Evidence focus on?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It focuses on school voucher programs and claims that ideological and financial pressures can outweigh the education research evidence about their effects on students.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"According to the text, who do today’s voucher programs primarily support?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The text states that voucher programs primarily support students who were never in public school, including students already enrolled in private school, homeschooled students, or students entering private kindergarten from the start.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the text describe the relationship between voucher program expansion and academic results?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It argues that the larger and more recent the voucher program is, the worse the academic results, citing studies that report negative impacts in multiple places.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},576703,1792662036,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":24,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},687197100911,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/a000239b6f1da00475?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1785132997149421697","Ideology Over Evidence  \nThe Truth About Vouchers and How They Harm Students  \nILLUSTRAT IONS BY PEP MONTSERRAT  \nBy Josh Cowen  \nM  \nuch of my career as a researcher, writer, and teacher has been built on the idea that evidence should inform public policy. What works, why, and for whom? This was the view with which I leapt, as  \na young scholar, at the chance to join large research projects concerning the extraordinarily controversial issue of school vouchers: programs that use tax dollars to fund private school tuition and expenses. I felt lucky towork on a federally supported grant with the express purpose of training young analysts to use evidence-based research, while also joining a team that would examine Milwaukee’s famous voucher system.  \nLooking back two decades later, I think that my youthful enthusiasm for evidence use in public policy seems misplaced—optimistic, for sure, and probably naïve. For in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the largest academic  \nJosh Cowen is a professor of education policy at Michigan State University and, for the 2024–25 academic year, was a senior fellow at the Education Law Center. Over the last two years, Cowen has written, testified, and spoken widely on the harmful effects of voucher programs. His work has appeared in outlets like the Brookings Institution Chalkboard, Time, The Hechinger Report, The Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. This article was excerpted with permission from The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers by Josh Cowen, September 2024, published by Harvard Education Press. See The Privateersfor notes on Cowen’s funding sources throughout his career. The Privateers received no financial support from the AFT or any other organization apartfrom a six-month sabbatical granted by Michigan State University. For more information, [please visit go.aft.org/p64](please visit go.aft.org/p64).  \ndeclines ever apparent in the education research record, on any topic, have been attributable to school vouchers. And yet the drumbeat to devote more and more resources to these voucher systems remains louder than ever.  \nThe facts, it would seem, are no match for big-dollar investments—many of them opaque contributions from extraordinarily wealthy individuals who have been pushing voucher plans forward for more than 30 years. Voucher programs are expanding, while the evidence against themis mounting.  \nMy contribution with The Privateers (see page 39) is to highlight the way that vast wealth, virulent ideology—usually Christian nationalist in nature, but also a powerful strand of economic libertarianism—and an insular network of intellectuals, lawyers, and lobbyistshave advanced an agenda from the rightward fringes of education policy into the political median.  \nVast sums of money have supported the academic and other research-focused adherents to voucher ideology. That support—what amounts to industry funding of research to support a product—has successfully countered the empirical reality of the voucher scheme in many places. But those dollars have not been able to change that basic reality.  \nHere is that evidence in seven straightforward results:  \n1. Today’s Voucher Programs Primarily Support Students Who Were Never in Public School  \nAsthe number of states with vouchers grew in the years leading up to this book’s publication in 2024, the typical voucher recipi-  \n38 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | FALL 2025  \nent had never been in public school. They were already enrolled in private school without taxpayer support, were in homeschool, or were enrolling in private kindergarten from the start. Estimates uncannily hover around the same figure—roughly 70 percent—of students in the most recent programs coming from private schools in states that have released the data: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Wisconsin.1 And we know from similar reporting that many ","cbCaibRNHIkhjEQA","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibRNHIkhjEQA","pdf",378827,"English","# Ideology Over Evidence\n## The Truth About Vouchers and How They Harm Students\n## Evidence and Findings on Voucher Programs\n## Voucher Expansion and Academic Declines","[{\"question\":\"What issue does Ideology Over Evidence focus on?\",\"answer\":\"It focuses on school voucher programs and claims that ideological and financial pressures can outweigh the education research evidence about their effects on students.\"},{\"question\":\"According to the text, who do today’s voucher programs primarily support?\",\"answer\":\"The text states that voucher programs primarily support students who were never in public school, including students already enrolled in private school, homeschooled students, or students entering private kindergarten from the start.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the text describe the relationship between voucher program expansion and academic results?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that the larger and more recent the voucher program is, the worse the academic results, citing studies that report negative impacts in multiple places.\"}]","Ideology Over Evidence - The Truth About Vouchers and How They Harm Students | PDF",1792030274,13]