Massachusetts Private School Survey: Gauging Capacity and Interest in Vouchers

If a voucher program were launched in Massachusetts, how many private schools would participate in the first year? How many seats would be initially available for eligible students? Would participating schools be located near the students most in need of a new schooling option?

This paper takes up the practical question of whether sufficient private school seats would be availible for a coucher initiative to get off the ground in Massachusetts. To collect the necessary data, Pioneer Instittue designed and conducted a survey of the 524 private, K-12 non-special education schools in Massachusetts. One hundred ninety-four schools serving a total of 50,435 K-12 students responded to the survey, representing 37 percent of all K-12 non-special education private schools in Massachusetts and approximately 43 percent of private school population.

Massachusetts Private School Survey: Gauging Capacity and Interest in Vouchers