Even if school vouchers didn't improve public education, the author argued in October 2002, implementing them would almost certainly improve poor neighborhoods. Quite a few parents stretch their budgets to live in communities with good public schools," he wrote. "Make vouchers available, and many of these parents will find that they can get more house for less money by moving into an undesirable public-school district and sending their children to a private school." In doing so, these voucher recipients would increase the tax base, property values, and the presence of middle class mores in poor neighborhoods. Thus the conclusion: "Vouchers are possibly the best desegregation and urban-renewal program that the United States has hardly ever tried."
Reversing White Flight
Even if vouchers don't improve schools, they will almost certainly improve neighborhoods