Jonathan Butcher

America’s K–12 education system is in the early stages of a dramatic transformation. Over the past 25 years, participation per capita in private education choice programs—vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, and K–12 education savings accounts—has increased more than tenfold.[REF] This surge in participation has been accompanied by the adoption of robust education choice policies by growing numbers of states, particularly in the wake of COVID-related school closures and increasing awareness of the politicization of the district school classroom and “woke” policies that put males into girls’ locker rooms and on girls’ sports teams.[REF] Since 2020, 18 states have adopted policies that make every one of their K–12 students eligible for education choice programs.[REF] By the end of 2025, more than half of K–12 students nationwide were eligible to participate in a private education choice program.[REF]

However, much remains to be done. Students participating in these choice programs represent less than 2 percent of the total K–12 student population nationwide. Moreover, universal eligibility does not imply universal access. Even among the states that make every K–12 student eligible for education choice, only a handful tie their programs to the state funding formula to ensure that every eligible student has access to a scholarship or education savings account.

Every child should have access to the learning environment that best meets his or her individual needs. States should enact education choice policies that not only make every K–12 student eligible to participate, but also ensure that every eligible child is funded through the state’s education funding formula or a similar funding mechanism. As more states adopt universal education choice policies and more families learn about them, participation rates will likely continue to climb rapidly for the foreseeable future.[REF]