By: Paloma Valencia
Fecode announced a national strike against my School Bond project that will have its second debate in Congress. It is a kind of extortion: if the project is approved, the children of the public system will not have classes. It seems to me that it reaffirms the importance of the approval of the School Bond.
It is about poor and vulnerable parents being able to choose between a public school and a private school for their children paid for by the State. The results of this measure will be extremely positive, as demonstrated by PACES, which was created in 1990 for high school students from strata 1 and 2. The bonus was equivalent to $244 per student, renewed each year, subject to whether the student passed a grade. The program had more than 125 thousand beneficiaries. The Nobel Prize winner in economics, Michael Kremer analyzed the results. Voucher recipients were 16% more likely to finish high school and there was a 16% increase in higher education enrollment. The beneficiary students also had an 8% increase in formal income and were 6% less likely to be included in the SISBEN of stratum 1 and 2 because they moved to higher strata.
Other studies such as those by Cambridge professors Joshua Angrist and Eric Bettinger found that the PACES program increased secondary school completion rates by between 15% and 20%.
Colombia has also used the school voucher for higher education with “Ser Pilo Paga”. More than 40,000 students benefited from the program. To be eligible, students had to score high on the ICFES tests and have a low SISBEN score. The beneficiary student chose the university they wanted, in the department they chose. The State paid the tuition and support costs. The results were outstanding. Juliana Londoño along with other academics showed that students eligible for the “Ser Pilo Paga” program have a greater than 16% probability of obtaining a professional degree. This outcome has a concentration on high-quality universities and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs.
Londoño also showed that the benefited students had an increase of 14.9 percentage points in their salaries, an increase of more than 20% compared to those who were not eligible for the program. Even the academic results were better in the beneficiary students, demonstrated by their Saber Pro tests. The article concludes that the benefits of the program are greater than the costs: each peso spent by the State on “Ser Pilo Paga” generates more than $4.80 of private benefits.
5.9 million children in extreme and moderate poverty and in vulnerable conditions may be beneficiaries of my “School Voucher” project. Parents will be able to choose the one they consider to be the best school for their children. What should be public is the access to education, not the building. This does not imply damaging public education, but it does imply overcoming one of the greatest inequities we have in education. Generating equal opportunities begins by defending everyone’s right to access and choose the best education available.