Educational Freedom Does Not Gamble with Students’ Futures

Just how long ago was 1996? That year, Nintendo released the N64. Gas cost a little over a dollar a gallon. And the Macarena topped the music charts.

The world looked different 30 years ago, and educational freedom was no exception. That’s the year when Milton and Rose Friedman founded the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, now known as EdChoice. At the time, the country had a handful of choice programs serving fewer than 10,000 students. Thirty years later, more than 1.5 million students benefit from 75 educational choice programs across 34 states.

Demand for educational choice has never been higher. In 2026 alone, Alabama’s CHOOSE ESA program — which allows families to access scholarship funds for private educational expenses, such as private school tuition, tutoring, and more — received applications for 48,927 students. Idaho’s Parental Choice Tax Credit drew 13,568 student applications during its initial application window. And Florida’s Step Up for Students received 500,000 applications for the state’s choice programs by March 30th, 22 days earlier than it took to reach that milestone last year.

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott set out to create the largest day-one school choice program in the country and exceeded that goal. Over 274,000 applications were submitted for the first year of the Texas Education Freedom Account program (TEFA), and more than 2,350 private schools have signed up to participate. To put that number of applications in perspective, it took until 2014 — nearly 20 years into EdChoice’s existence — for 274,000 students to use school choice programs nationwide.

Despite heavy ongoing demand, Texas also highlights an issue that educational choice programs are facing across the country: funding caps. In the 2026-27 school year, Texas policymakers expect fewer than half of families who submitted TEFA applications to receive funding. The majority of applicants will be stranded on a waitlist, hoping to be selected in a lottery that determines whether their student receives the educational opportunity that best fits their needs.

Texas is not alone on this issue. Program after program suffers from funding caps that prevent the supply of choice scholarships from meeting demand. According to the 2026 EdChoice Funded Eligibility Rankings, only nine states guarantee funding for every eligible student.

The truth is, not all choice programs are designed equally. Some, frankly, need significant improvement to meet demand. In most states, families seeking better educational options are locked out of education choice programs because scholarship funding is unavailable due to poor program design. To meet the moment, we urge states like Texas to embrace true universal choice. It is not enough that every child can apply for a program; true universal choice requires that all students be eligible, all options be available, and all students be fully funded, meaning every eligible student in a state with a choice program can receive the resources needed to participate.

When Milton and Rose Friedman founded EdChoice, they advocated for a true market in education, where parents are at the head of the table and in full control of their child’s learning environment. As Milton said, “A centralized system cannot possibly have that degree of personal concern for each individual child that we have as parents.” Policymakers would be wise to remember Milton’s words by acknowledging the growing demands of families for educational freedom and providing it.

All families who wish to participate in their state’s choice program deserve funding and access to the full range of educational goods and services. Legislators can make that a reality for families, but only if they fully embrace the principle that no official or entity should make decisions about a child’s future in place of a parent.