Over the past few decades, the number of families using school choice programs has increased. Hundreds of thousands of families are now using programs like vouchers, Education Savings Accounts or some type of school choice tax credit. According to EdChoice, a school choice advocacy group, more than a million U.S. students participated in private school choice programs in 2024, a record-breaking number.
This is the second part of a two-part series on school choice programs across the nation. To read the first part, click here.
Straight Arrow News spoke with Rachel Brady, a North Carolina mother who uses her state’s program to enroll her two oldest children in private school. However, she had issues in 2024 after the state waitlisted her second child when she applied to the school choice program.
“So, our oldest was kind of grandfathered in, and he received it again for third grade. But our second child was waitlisted because the funding ran out in tier one,” Brady said.
Brady and several other families began worrying about whether the school would remove their children from the waitlist before enrollment started. To try to help their children, a group of these families traveled to the state capital and held a rally.
In November 2024, North Carolina state lawmakers passed a bill that added $248 million to clear the waitlist for families in 2024. However, at that point, many families, including Brady’s, had already decided where to send their children. While Brady was still able to send her children to a private school, some families couldn’t.
“Many families either couldn’t afford it or had made a different choice for their children, and so, the action by the legislature really was too late for them,” she said, adding, “We are thankful that they did take the action and set the precedent for future years. So there is funding available now for families who apply for the scholarship program.”
Are school choice programs expanding in the US?
Like North Carolina, many states are expanding or enacting new school choice initiatives. On May 3, Texas passed its school choice bill, allocating $1 billion of state money to fund a universal school choice ESA. SAN reached out to Gov. Abbott for comment, and he said the bill is a massive victory for Texas families.
“Now, with historic school choice combined with record public education funding, Texas is on track to lead the nation in education,” the governor said.
Besides enacting new laws, lawmakers in states that already have school choice are expanding programs. For example, Florida expanded its ESA program in 2023 to nearly $4 billion, more than 10% of its entire state education budget.
However, despite receiving more funding, Brady and other parents are still concerned about securing it.
“I am a little nervous. I’m hopeful that the funding will still be there,” Brady said. “It’s harder to get into the program than to stay in the program because once you’re in it, then you’re a renewal. And so you are first served, but as a new applicant, you enter in with everyone else.”
Do these programs help students?
Advocates claim that school choice programs consistently show that students perform better when using them. However, critics say the evidence isn’t there.
EdChoice cites several studies showing student improvement. However, critics, such as the Economic Policy Institute, cite studies that show school choice has the opposite effect.
EdChoice is a member of the State Policy Network, a group of nonprofits that advocate for conservative or libertarian policies. The Economic Policy Institute lists two national teachers’ unions among its largest donors. Teacher unions have largely opposed school choice, as it can lead to reduced funding for public schools, thereby reducing funding for the unions.
Most of the positive results of the studies vary from state to state. Florida and Arizona have seen higher high school graduation rates and increased college enrollment among students who utilize their state’s school choice programs. A report on Florida’s tax-credit scholarship by the Urban Institute showed that program participants were more likely to attend and graduate from college than their peers.
Parents like Brady said they see a big difference in children in these programs. She said that the way public schools teach students doesn’t work for every child, and the ability to choose their child’s education benefits the children who need it.
“One thing we’re seeing in today’s world is that every child is really different, and I feel like that’s becoming a mainstream idea. It used to be a fringe idea, but now it’s becoming more mainstream that kids are just wired differently,” she said. “Not everybody learns the same way, and what works for one child is not going to work for another.”
Other reports indicated that school choice programs led to “modest increases” in public school performance due to increased competition with private schools. According to the Cascade Policy Institute, more than three dozen studies conducted over the last two decades confirmed that voucher programs have increased student-level performance at public schools. However, Hillary Wething, an economist with EPI, argues that people shouldn’t treat public education as a product that requires competition.
“Public schooling is not a good, the way grocery store items are a good. When we think of where market competition works, that is often in terms of buying goods and services,” she said. “We rightly mandate every child in the United States gets educated. It is actually one of the reasons why the U.S. in the 20th century kind of pulled away from all of its peer countries as one of the leaders, because we were one of the first countries to mandate public education.”
Is there any evidence that students performed worse?
Other states have shown negative results. For instance, Louisiana’s program is frequently cited as the worst-performing school choice program in the country. One study from the University of Arkansas showed that the Louisiana Scholarship Program has a “statistically significant negative impact” on students’ English and math scores. The study also found that students who used the program were enrolled in college just 0.5% more often than students who didn’t, a minimal increase.
“Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana and Washington, D.C., all have done high-quality, peer-reviewed studies that have been published in academic journals, and they all show an educational attainment loss for students who are transitioning into private schools using these voucher programs, both in math and in language arts,” Wething said.
However, advocates argue that bureaucracy, not poor school quality, caused the negative test scores reported in Louisiana. EdChoice Policy and Advocacy Director Nathan Sanders said this makes the schools jump through unnecessary hoops.
“For example, I think one of the negative results is the state of Louisiana, what we talked about before, and that wasn’t necessarily because these schools were bad or not teaching. It was just because the regulatory structure of the program, and there were so many barriers these schools are having to jump through that it just took some time for these schools to get adjusted, whether that was for testing, whether that was enrollment, admissions,” Sanders said.
One positive statistic is parent satisfaction. A study by EdChoice found that 69% of parents with children in public school felt either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their child’s education. Nearly 80% of parents who had their children enrolled in private schools said the same.
Brady told SAN North Carolina’s program was a boon to her as a parent. She said the private school her children attend makes her feel supported after she moved her oldest child from homeschooling.
“I think the biggest change was more for me, honestly, I needed support from a school,” Brady said. “I love homeschooling. It’s a wonderful way of teaching children. I think it’s extremely good for kids. It can be challenging for the parent, and so it was more of a lifestyle decision for our family to provide some support for me.”
However, other programs haven’t received the same amount of positive feedback. Wething said a study of the school voucher program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, showed that parents reported dissatisfaction with their children’s education.
“In Milwaukee, where vouchers have been studied extensively, in part because they’ve existed since 1990, we saw that, at least for the students that went into these voucher programs, 20% left each year to return to public school because they weren’t satisfied with the quality of education they were getting in these after schools,” she said.
Why are some states showing different results?
The performance of school choice programs varies by state. Several factors affect this performance, such as funding levels and the strength of private schools in that state.
States with comprehensive legislation that included clear guidelines, accountability and support for participating schools tended to have better outcomes. For example, Indiana’s program has an income eligibility structure that makes sure lower-income families have access to schools that might otherwise be unreachable. Oklahoma’s program is available to all families, but the amount they receive is based on household income, meaning families with lower incomes receive more. However, despite the guidelines, some reports have stated that about a fourth of the money goes to the top income bracket.
North Carolina also has income rules for its school choice program. The program is available to every student, but higher-income families receive less state assistance for private schools.
“There’s income screening to make sure that those who need it most are being served first, and then, as parents, you never have access to it,” Brady said. “It’s done directly from the state to the school, and so it’s protected, it’s guarded, and it’s handled extremely well from a management standpoint, and making sure that the funding is handled very ethically.”
Some advocates believe these restrictions hurt the programs. Sanders said increased regulations only hinder the market. His organization is calling for fewer barriers for schools that want to participate.
“We want a competitive market with lots of schools and lots of options for families, and if you add these burdensome regulations that don’t necessarily mean better results for kids, then you’re only going to sort of bottleneck the market,” Sanders said.
Another key factor in these programs is the strength of private schools in each state. Research indicates that states with more successful private schools tend to perform better, as they can offer students more options. States with fewer or lower-quality private schools showed worse performance as they provided students with fewer options.
Private school students also typically do better on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests. According to NAEP, private Catholic schools, the only private schools listed in the scores, outperform public school students by about 10 to 20 points in math, science and reading.
So, do school choice programs work?
So, are school choice programs working? Like most things, it’s complicated.
There is evidence that students who use these programs experience improvements in their test scores. A report by the Cascade Policy Institute indicated that some students in these programs saw improvements in reading and math, but those results are not universal.
Parents also report high satisfaction with school choice programs. According to advocates, parents feel they have more say in their child’s education and can find a school or educational program that better suits their child’s needs.
Studies have also shown that some public schools have performed better after the increased competition from private schools, which advocates say leads to more innovation and curriculum changes at public schools. At the same time, many of the nation’s public schools lack adequate funding, and these programs can reduce the resources available to public education.
Other studies indicate these programs can increase private school tuition. Lower-income and rural families also face challenges in finding suitable private school options, as many rural or impoverished areas lack them. Rural communities also rely more heavily on federal funds since they raise less money through local taxes. If more federal dollars are allocated to private schools, this could, in theory, hurt rural communities more.
“For other students, say low-income students or rural students, I’ll start with rural students. I think that example is pretty poignant. School choice is almost a kind of criminal phrase to use for those students because they live in populations that are, you know, fairly small and therefore couldn’t handle an additional school coming in and say, taking 50 kids, might be 50% of their enrollment,” Wething said. “So the idea that, for rural schools, there is a choice here to be made is a little preposterous.”
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According to EdChoice, the first voucher school programs created in the U.S. were in Vermont in 1869 and in Maine in 1873.
In an email to SAN, Sanders clarified that EdChoice advocates for these programs not to dismantle public education but to give families more options.
“We fully support traditional public schools, and for many families, that’s the option they choose—which is exactly the point. It’s about respecting and empowering those choices,” he said in his email.
So, do school choice programs work? Well, it’s hard to say. Advocates claim that students perform better and that families who couldn’t get their children into private schools now have the option. But some studies suggest other students do worse, with one study calling Ohio students’ performance with the state’s school choice program a “mixed bag.”
Critics say there’s an issue with the country’s public schools. They say states should be allocating more money to them, not less.
“If I had to wave my magic wand to provide the best educational opportunity to every child in this country, I would take all of the money that is getting kind of put into these voucher programs and redirect all of it into public education. And in particular, I would redirect it into low-income neighborhoods who are getting less funds from their local property taxes in the first place,” Wething said.
Advocates like Sanders say there are many negative emotions surrounding school choice programs. He says that, at the end of the day, these programs help some families, and that’s what people should focus on.
“This isn’t about lawmakers. This isn’t about even advocates,” he said. “This is about families and students, and it’s about education. And so we always try to remind people that that’s where the focus is. It’s about the families, and it’s about what’s best for them, and we put a lot of emphasis on trusting parents and letting parents make the decision for their kids.”
As the debate over using state funds to help pay for private school continues, families like Brady’s say they are happy with these programs and that without them, they wouldn’t be able to afford an excellent education for their children.
“The school that we’re at is wonderful, and I have a lot of personal interaction with the teachers,” Brady said. “I do remember a time I was working through a homework problem with my son, and my child’s teacher got on Marco Polo, and she shared with me how to solve a particularly difficult word problem, and I felt very supported, very helped, and this is the right place for us. This is great individualized help for my child.”
