Going, going, gone

"Parents are voting with their feet," writes Robert Pondiscio. A new University of Arkansas report on the state's new Education Freedom Accounts shows participation more than doubled in 2024-25.

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Even more significant, he writes, 91 percent of families who used the state funding to pay for tuition or homeschooling expenses stayed with it in year three. These families are walking away from traditional public schools and not coming back.

"Achievement results are respectable" -- 57th percentile in math, 59th in English language arts -- for Arkansas students using the program, the report concludes.

As families commit, more providers are offering programs, including low-cost private schools, microschools and hybrids, Pondiscio writes. "If parents prove loyal to their choices, it will be worth watching whether these new institutions and service providers display the same staying power — evidence that a parallel education ecosystem is taking root."

In more than a dozen states, parents can use education savings accounts (ESAs), vouchers or tax credit scholarships to pay approved educational expenses, he notes. "Florida serves more than 500,000 students through its universal voucher and scholarship programs," and Arizona has "nearly 94,600 ESA students, a figure larger than the enrollment of Mesa Unified — the state’s biggest district." In Iowa, West Virginia, Utah and New Hampshire, choice programs are growing rapidly.