1936-
Harvard Center for the Study of Public Policy

A Voucher System.

In 1970 Christopher Jencks issued a report from the HarvardHarvard Center for the Study of Public; Policy Center for the Study of Public Policy that touched off a public debate on the feasibility of a type of voucher system for education. This report, principally authored by Jencks and funded by a grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity, suggested that people be permitted to purchase, with public funds, a private education. Because this plan struck at the foundation of the public-school structure, it was vehemently opposed by many groups. Several other slightly different voucher proposals were offered about the same time, the most notably by John Coons, William Clune, and Stephen Sugarman in their book Private Wealth and Public Education, also published in 1970. However, Jencks's suggestions were the ones that became synonymous in the public...