MONTPELIER, Vt. – A new study is revealing what many school choice advocates have known for a while now: parents desperately want the ability to choose the school that works best for their child.

In fact, they’re willing to pay a hefty premium for homes in areas with more educational options.

“School Vouchers and Home Prices: Premiums in School Districts Lacking Public Schools” – a forthcoming study in the Journal of Housing Research – shows that homes in towns that have various high school options sell for almost $8,500 more than comparable homes in similar towns that have an assigned high school.

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“The big takeaway is options have value … and parents value the opportunity to pick where they send their children to school,” said David M. Harrison, one of three authors of the study.

Harrison, a finance professor at Texas Tech University, worked with finance and real estate professor Bartley R. Danielsen of North Carolina State University and Susanne E. Cannon, director of The Real Estate Center at DePaul University, to look at single home transactions in Vermont between April 2009 and March 2012.

They selected Vermont for the study because of the state’s unique history with school choice and general lack of socioeconomic and racial segregation more typical in other states.

“Vermont as a state is 95 percent white, so we don’t have the white flight” and other factors that can skew results or invite criticism, Harrison said. “It makes for a cleaner … look at why people are purchasing homes in certain areas.”

Vermont has also used a unique school voucher system since 1869 for students in towns without a dedicated public school, so towns across the state offer school choice options that are often restricted to urban areas in other states, said Harrison, who taught at the University of Vermont for nine years before transferring to Texas Tech.

In analyzing 2,933 real estate transactions in the $25,000 to $2.5 million price range the researchers found that the more school choice options available, the more people were willing to pay for the property.

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Overall, comparable properties were worth over $8,450 more in areas with school choice than areas that restrict choice, but when researchers looked at homes near poor performing schools, the ability to obtain a voucher added a staggering $24,000, the study shows.

Danielsen said he believes the estimated value might be somewhat conservative, because Vermont uses vouchers for students in locations where there are no other public education options.

School choice “increases property values and in general makes the area more attractive,” Danielsen said. “You might think of it as a blight fighter in urban areas.”

Which begs the question: If school choice gives families the freedom they want to pursue a better education for their children while simultaneously increasing property values and tax revenue, why doesn’t every city in America embrace the concept?

Perhaps the nation’s largest teachers unions and Democratic Party donors – the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers – could provide some insight.