2024 EdChoice Spending Share Rankings

How public spending on private school choice compares to total K-12 spending

With approximately 20 million students—or 36 %—nationwide now eligible to participate in a private school choice program, many may wonder just how spending on these programs compares to that invested in overall K-12 schooling. In this annual blog post, we reveal how much money states spend on private school choice programs as a share of the total amount of money states spend on current K-12 education altogether, as most recently reported by the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education.

Current expenditures do not include any spending for property and for buildings and alterations completed by school district staff or contractors, or paying down interest on school debt. Instead, current expenditures include the day-to-day operation of schools and school districts. Looking at those makes for the easiest comparisons of spending that directly affects students and classroom learning. And at the very least, this ratio will give a conservative sense of how small private school choice currently is relative to other K-12 spending.

Here’s what goes into our calculations. For the national numbers, reflected in the first interactive chart below, we carry forward the most recently available financial data as of December 2023, reported in The ABCs (exceptions are Kansas, Vermont, and Maryland, for which we collected updated data in January). We divide these financial numbers by current and total expenditures as reported by NCES. The most recently available expenditure data from NCES covers academic year 2020-21 (represented by “2021” in our charts). For years 2021-22 through 2023-24, we projected annual increases in expenditures to equal the actual average year-over-year increases in the three years prior to the most recent NCES data. Our state numbers, reflected in the interactive charts in the slidedeck below, follow a very similar procedure to the national number. The only difference is that we do not carry forward previous years’ data to 2024, and instead just show spending share calculations through the most recent year for which we have data. (Note: A previous version of these calculations simply carried over NCES data through 2024 rather than calculating a projection.)

For tax credit scholarship programs, we calculated the reported total credits claimed, when possible. When unavailable, we used the total value of all scholarships distributed through that program. Non-refundable individual credits and deductions are not included, as totaling the former can distort results by emphasizing programs that offer little money to many students. We are, however, including for the first time the refundable individual tax credits offered in Alabama, Minnesota, and South Carolina (Oklahoma does not yet have information available for its new refundable credit), which reflects changes seen in the 2024 edition of The ABCs of School Choice. That means Minnesota is making its first appearance in this annual ranking.

Altogether, private school choice programs have allocated $6.3 billion to students in the last year, which is equivalent to 0.9 percent of the $703 billion spent on current expenditures by public schools and 0.77 percent of the $813 billion spent on all expenditures.

Below are the results, organized from the greatest share to smallest. The number in parentheses following the state name shows the state’s ranking in 2023, which you can read more about in last year’s post. It’s hard not to notice the most substantial change from 2023 to 2024: Florida and Arizona are off the charts. After universalizing school choice last year, the Sunshine State nearly doubled its share of K-12 expenditures being spent on private school choice programs (from 4.7% to 8.7%). Because Arizona made its education savings account (ESA) program universal earlier, it already saw a large jump from 2022 to 2023. But Arizona’s second year of universal school choice saw another large spending share increase (from 5.2% to 7.6%), perhaps signaling greater awareness or ease of access for Arizona families.

We should mention a few notes before moving to the spending share ranking. Not included on this list are the new programs from Utah, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, or North Carolina, nor does this ranking account for the expansion of the Ohio statewide voucher, as we’re still awaiting launch or initial account funding data from those updates. West Virginia is ranked in this annual list for the first time, as financial data was not available at time of writing last year. All other states are tied for last with zero dollars spent on private school choice programs.

Our program spending totals reflect data we collected through December 2023, which are included in the 2024 edition of The ABCs of School Choice.

1. Florida (2)
ESA (2), Tax-Credit ESA, Tax-Credit Scholarship | $2.9 billion | 7.95% of Florida’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($33.4 billion)

2. Arizona (1)
ESA, Tax-Credit Scholarships (4) | $549 million | 7.58% of Arizona’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($12.0 billion)

3. Wisconsin (3)
Vouchers (4) | $572 million | 4.53% of Wisconsin’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($12.1 billion)

4. Vermont (4)
Voucher | $57 million | 2.718% of Vermont’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($2.1 billion)

5. Indiana (6)
ESA, Voucher, Tax-Credit Scholarship | $337.8 million | 2.59% of Indiana’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($12.7 billion)

6. Ohio (5)
Vouchers (5), Tax-Credit Scholarship | $610 million | 2.33% of Ohio’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($24.9 billion)

7. Iowa (14)
ESA, Tax-Credit Scholarship | $155 million (early estimate) | 2.24% of Iowa’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($6.9 billion)

8. Maine (7)
Voucher | $54 million | 1.59% of Maine’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($3.2 billion)

9. North Carolina (10)
ESA, Voucher | $172 million | 1.01% of North Carolina’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($17.0 billion)

10. New Hampshire (11)
ESA, Tax-Credit Scholarship | $30 million | 0.86% of New Hampshire’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($3.2 billion)

11. District of Columbia (8)
Voucher | $19 million | 0.81% of D.C.’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($2.3 billion)

12. West Virginia (NR)
ESA| $25 million | 0.69% of West Virginia’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($3.6 billion)

13. Georgia (13)
Voucher, Tax-Credit Scholarship | $134 million | 0.62% of Georgia’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($21.6 billion)

14. Pennsylvania (12)
Tax-Credit Scholarships (2) | $184 million | 0.59% of Pennsylvania’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($31.1 billion)

15. Louisiana (9)
Vouchers (2), Tax-Credit Scholarship | $56 million | 0.57% of Louisiana’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($9.7 billion)

16. Alabama (15)
Tax-Credit Scholarship, Refundable Tax Credit | $19 million | 0.21% of Alabama’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($8.4 billion)

17. Illinois (17)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | $76 million | 0.21% of Illinois’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($37.0 billion)

18. Oklahoma (16)
Refundable Tax Credit, Voucher, Tax-Credit Scholarship | $15.7 million | 0.20% of Oklahoma’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($8.1 billion)

19. Tennessee (30)
ESA, Voucher | $20 million | 0.18% of Tennessee’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($10.4 billion)

20. South Dakota (17)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | $3 million | 0.18% of South Dakota’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($1.6 billion)

21. Nevada (18)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | $9 million | 0.17% of Nevada’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($5.2 billion)

22. Utah (21)
ESA, Voucher, Tax-Credit Scholarship | $9 million | 0.14% of Utah’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($7.0 billion)

23. Montana (20)
ESA, Tax-Credit Scholarship | $2 million | 0.11% of Montana’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($2.1 billion)

24. Mississippi (23)
ESA, Vouchers (2) | $4 million | 0.09% of Mississippi’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($4.7 billion)

25. Arkansas (22)
ESA, Voucher, Tax-Credit Scholarship | $5 million | 0.09% of Arkansas’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($5.8 billion)

26. Virginia (24)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | $14 million | 0.08% of Virginia’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($17.9 billion)

27. Kansas (25)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | $4 million | 0.07% of Kansas’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($6.6 billion)

28. South Carolina (29)
ESA, Tax-Credit Scholarship, Refundable Tax Credit | $7 million | 0.07% of South Carolina’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($9.7 billion)

29. Maryland (26)
Voucher | $10 million | 0.06% of Maryland’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($15.9 billion)

30. Missouri (27)
Tax Credit ESA | $6 million | 0.06% of Missouri’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($10.8 billion)

31. Rhode Island (28)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | $1 million | 0.05% of Rhode Island’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($2.7 billion)

32. Minnesota (NR)
Refundable Tax Credit | $5 million | 0.04% of Minnesota’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($12.7 billion)