by Lance T. Izumi, Fellow in California Studies
Pacific Research Institute
October 1997

Announcer lead: Time for Perspectives. Lance Izumi says that a new British study shows that school choice works.

I've just returned from a five week stay in London as a visiting fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, one of Margaret Thatcher's favorite think tanks. By coincidence, the most interesting news items in Britain during my trip involved Margaret Thatcher's most revolutionary education program. Sixteen years ago, Mrs. Thatcher created the Assisted Places program, Britain's version of vouchers. In total, 75,000 children from low-income families have received government financial assistance to attend private independent schools.

Recently, the London School of Economics released a study that compared a sample group of students in the Assisted Places program with a group of students who were accepted into the program but who turned down the offer and instead enrolled in a government school. Statistical analysis of students' previous test scores showed that both groups were of comparable academic ability.

At the end of the students' secondary school careers, however, an amazing thing had happened. Despite their nearly identical academic abilities, the Assisted Places students had higher levels of achievement than their government-school counterparts. On the so-called A-level subject-area exams that British students take before they enter university, the Assisted Places students scored a whole grade higher on each individual subject exam. This translated into as much as a 20 percent higher numerical score. The study concluded that these findings clearly suggest that students in the Assisted Places scheme are performing better than equivalent students in the state sector.

Despite the confirmation of the program's success, Britain's new Labour government, for purely political reasons, scrapped the Assisted Places program earlier this year. Labour's mistake, however, shouldn't stop American education reformers from learning important lessons from Margaret Thatcher's successful school choice legacy.

With a perspective, I'm Lance Izumi.