This study aimed to understand if school choice programs help reduce the general crime rates when in students when they become adults. Using a unique data collection process, the two authors evaluated criminal rates among young adults who attended a school program in Milwaukee, one of the first cities or states to provide school choice as a legitimate and viable option to parents and students.
Although the results do not have a certain finding, they do show that simply exposing a student to a private school environment is associated with a lower general crime rate. Additionally, if a student went through 12 years of education at a private/non-traditional public school, they were much less likely to have a criminal record than their counterparts in the public-school system. The two authors argue that the more time a student participates in a voucher school choice program, the less likely they are to have a criminal record.
