Private School Choice Stats
- Programs: 61 Tax Credit Scholarship, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) and Voucher programs in 31 states, and D.C.
- 25 tax-credit scholarship programs across 21 states.
- Expenditures: Over $3.2 billion expended for private school choice programs, including $1.4 billion expended for tax credit scholarship programs.
- Private choice spending is a fraction of the $734.7 billion in public school spending.
- Scholarships: $5,400 is the average choice program scholarship, with $3,955 as the average tax credit scholarship.
- Average public school per pupil expenditure is $17,000.
- Students: 660,000 private school choice students, with 325,168 tax credit scholarship students.
- From fall 2019 to fall 2020, total public school enrollment dropped from 50.8 million to 49.4 million students, and further declines projected to 47.3 million by 2030.
- Research: Many positive impacts of school choice –
- (1) Improved academic outcomes for participating students; (2) Savings to taxpayers; and (3) Improved test scores for surrounding public schools.
- Other School Choice Options: Public Charter Schools; Magnet Schools; Inter/Intra-District Public School Choice; Homeschooling; Hybrid Homeschooling; Online learning; Microschooling; and Personalized Learning & Learning Pods.
Polling
- Polling on school choice issues has consistently shown robust majority support transcending race, ethnicity and political affiliation. In September 2022, the firm OnMessage, Inc., polled 1,000 likely voters (3.1% margin of error) that showed percentage support for school choice at or better than 2-to-1 margins: Republicans (81-11), Independents (60-32), African-Americans (63-31), Latinos (66-28), rural voters (67-22) and adults with school-age children (68-23). Democrats (49-42) also favored school choice.
State Legislative Progress: 2021 – 2022
- With more educational freedom options, the era of school choice has only just begun.
- 24 states passed school choice legislation.
- 1.5 million students will be able to benefit from school choice programs because of this progress.
There were 17 school choice bills introduced in the 117th Congress. The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) has more support and more cosponsors than any other school choice bill. The Commitment to America agenda published last fall included expanding parental choice for more than one million students – that’s the ECCA.
For additional information on school choice or how the ECCA would benefit children and families in your state, please contact John Schilling – jschilling@investineducation.org or Peter Murphy – pmurphy@investineducation.org