Louisiana’s school voucher program is actually harming students academically, according to a new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. While the paper will surely be used by school choice opponents to call for an end to the program, a detailed look shows that school choice advocates should instead use it to call for program reforms.

The paper showed that attending a private school participating in the Louisiana Scholarship Program would increase the likelihood of a failing math score by 50 percent. “Voucher effects for reading, science and social studies are also negative and large,” researchers wrote. “The negative impacts of vouchers are consistent across income groups, geographic areas, and private school characteristics, and are larger for younger children.”