The States Ranked by Spending on School Choice Programs, 2020 Edition

The headline says it all. But if you’d like added context, see the national chart in this year’s edition of The ABCs of School Choice (also visible below). For a refresher on how the calculations are made, see the inaugural spending share post from 2017.

Just like last year’s calculations, these use state public expenditure data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of School System Finances Tables. I’ve once again included the ranking from last year in parentheses to denote any year-over-year differences. Amounts are based on most recently available data.

If you’ve read this now-annual post in the past, you know that educational choice spending is just a tiny drop in each state’s giant bucket of funds they spend on K–12 education. Even Florida’s educational choice spending of more than a billion dollars is less than 4 percent of the combined program and public K–12 spending.

1. Florida (1)
ESA, Voucher (2), Tax-Credit Scholarships (2) | 3.84% of Florida’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $1.04 billion

2. Arizona (2)
ESA, Tax-Credit Scholarships (4) | 3.16% of Arizona’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $248.8 million

3. Wisconsin (3)
Vouchers (4) | 2.88% of Wisconsin’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $308.3 million

4. Vermont (4)
Voucher | 2.88% of Vermont’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $50.3 million

5. Maine (5)
Voucher | 2.17% of Maine’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $56.5 million

6. Indiana (6)
Voucher, Tax-Credit Scholarship | 1.77% of Indiana’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $183.2 million

7. Ohio (7)
Vouchers (5) | 1.49% of Ohio’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $324.1 million

8. District of Columbia (8)
Voucher | 1.35% of D.C.’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $15.7 million

9. Louisiana (9)
Vouchers (2), Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.71% of Louisiana’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $53.0 million

10.  Georgia (10)
Voucher, Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.49% of Georgia’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $88.9 million

11. North Carolina (11)
ESA, Vouchers (2) | 0.47% of North Carolina’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $62.3 million

12. Pennsylvania (12)
Tax-Credit Scholarships (2) | 0.38% of Pennsylvania’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $104.4 million

13. Alabama (15)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.33% of Alabama’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $23.9 million

14. Iowa (14)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.30% of Iowa’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $17.4 million

15. Nevada (13)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.23% of Nevada’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $9.4 million

16. Oklahoma (16)
Voucher, Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.20% of Oklahoma’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $10.9 million

17. Illinois (29)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.17% of Illinois’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $53.0 million

18. Utah (17)
Voucher | 0.13% of Utah’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $5.6 million

19. South Carolina (18)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.12% of South Carolina’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $9.7 million

20. Mississippi (19)
ESA, Vouchers (2) | 0.11% of Mississippi’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $4.7 million

21. Virginia (20)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.10% of Virginia’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $14.9 million

22. Rhode Island (21)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.06% of Rhode Island’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $1.4 million

23. Maryland (22)
Voucher | 0.05% of Maryland’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $6.5 million

24. Arkansas (23)
Voucher | 0.03% of Arkansas’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $1.6 million

25. New Hampshire (24)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.03% of New Hampshire’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $1.0 million

26. Kansas (26)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.03% of Kansas’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $1.5 million

27. South Dakota (25)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | 0.01% of South Dakota’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $0.2 million

28. Tennessee  (27)
ESA | Less than 0.01% of Tennessee’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | $0.8 million

29. Montana* (28)
Tax-Credit Scholarship | Less than 0.01% of Montana’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures | Less than $0.1 million

_{* This program is not currently operating pending a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.}