Research & Data

Study Finds Proposed Arkansas Universal ESA Likely to Save Money

Arkansas Universal ESA

Legislators in Arkansas proposed a bill (HB 1222) to increase educational choice for families through an education savings account (ESA) program available to every child across the state.  And though the previously conducted empirical studies on the financial effects of private school choice programs have found overall benefits to the state, taxpayers and individual districts, […]

The States Ranked by Spending on School Choice Programs

School Choice Spending

You may have noticed a new chart in this year’s edition of The ABCs of School Choice. That’s because we wanted to do something different and look at the aggregate spending on vouchers, tax-credit scholarships and education savings accounts (ESAs) in the context of national K–12 education spending. I took the total spending data over […]

The 2017 EdChoice Yearbook Superlatives

superlatives feature image

The EdChoice team has put in its votes for this year’s educational choice yearbook superlatives, and these are our winners. Enjoy.   Most Empowering Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program Our team weighed purchasing power, funding stream stability and the ability of parents to use their funds flexibly to determine the educational choice program that empowers the […]

U.S. States Ranked by Educational Choice Share, 2017

School Choice Share

In my continual quest to provide the most comprehensive data possible, I have revamped how we look at the educational choice share, or EdChoice share. This year, the EdChoice share looks at what proportion of all K–12 students are enrolled in an education savings account (ESA), voucher or tax-credit scholarship program. To get this number, […]

Why Milwaukee’s Voucher Program Isn’t the Litmus Test for School Choice Everywhere (Despite Its Positive Results)

School choice in Milwaukee

Milwaukee, Wisconsin has a 25-year-old school voucher program (MPCP) restricted to low-income students, district-run chartered public schools and some privately funded vouchers. Because the MPCP is the oldest publicly funded U.S. voucher program, its results have attracted a lot of attention.  Sadly, much of what has been said and written, from school choice expansion proponents […]

Milwaukee school vouchers to drive more than $499 million in socioeconomic benefits

Milwaukee School Vouchers on the Map

School choice advocates and researchers know choice programs lead to better academic achievement. But far less is known about the downstream financial benefits of the nation’s first modern school voucher program: the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). Earlier this month, in concert with the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, we released a study that […]

Exploring Arizona’s Private Schools After Nearly Two Decades of Educational Choice

Exploring Arizona's Private Education Sector

The Grand Canyon State is a pioneer when it comes to educational choice. Arizona has been home to the nation’s first universal school choice program for nigh on two decades—the Original Individual Income Tax Credit Scholarship Program. This tax-credit scholarship program is open to all K–12 students and even some prekindergarteners. And in 2011, Arizona […]

EdChoice on the 2015 PISA Results: “Meh.”

2015 PISA Results

  Give the American K–12 education system another participation ribbon, this time for its latest results on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a global measurement taken every three years that assesses 15-year-old students on reading, mathematics and science literacy. We came; we took the test; and we got nowhere. We certainly didn’t conquer. […]

Breaking Down “The Tax-Credit Scholarship Audit”

Breaking Down The Tax Credit Scholarship Audit by Martin Lueken

In 2014, we calculated the cumulative savings generated by America’s K–12 school voucher programs over two decades—$1.7 billion. This year, we continued that study by doing the same for seven states’ tax-credit scholarship programs, which cover 93 percent of total scholarships awarded to date. These types of school choice programs differ from school vouchers in […]