New Survey Highlights Widespread Ignorance of Choice Programs

Families can’t use an ESA that they don’t know exists

Last week, my colleague Paul DiPerna wrote a great piece on Informed Choice looking at the impact of the term “school voucher” and noting the baggage associated with the term.

While many of us in the education policy sphere can very succinctly explain the difference between a voucher and an ESA, there is plenty of evidence to show that this distinction is not as easily grasped by various media outlets or skeptics of educational choice programs. Within Paul’s post, he highlights a few examples of this inaccuracy from high profile media outlets like the Washington Post, as well as from skeptics like Randi Weingarten.

At best, these discussions are unserious. At worst, they are intentionally misleading those who are trying to learn more about these policies.

Paul’s post references an experiment he conducted on whether or not the term “school voucher” affects support for such a policy. I won’t go too far into detail, but the effects were rather minor. People appear more likely to latch onto the utility or purpose of the policy, rather than the terminology itself. This is good news, surely. What about in real life, though? Are people in states with an ESA or voucher program currently operating confused about the policy?

We at EdChoice recently released the 2025 Schooling in America survey. There are a ton of interesting findings from the survey which you can read about here. One that we have been monitoring closely is a question that tries to gauge awareness of school choice policies.

We surveyed roughly 2,500 parents in our Schooling in America survey. Around 750 resided in states with an ESA currently operating.[1] We asked them whether or not their state had an ESA program. Below is a breakdown of how accurate parents were:

• 30% of parents in states with an ESA program correctly answered “yes”
• 22% of parents in states without an ESA program correctly answered “no”

What about for school vouchers?

• 44% of parents in states with a school voucher program correctly answered “yes”
• 20% of parents in states without a school voucher program correctly answered “no”

Let’s look at it from the state level. For the sake of time, we will stick with the two largest ESA states (at the time) in terms of participation in the program, Florida and Arizona.[2]

Arizona (N=60 parents)

• 50% correctly identified that Arizona has an ESA program
• 10% incorrectly stated that Arizona does not have an ESA program
• 40% responded “unsure”

Florida (N=180 parents)

• 39% correctly identified that Florida has an ESA program
• 15% incorrectly stated that Florida does not have an ESA program
• 46% responded “unsure”

What about parents’ accuracy when talking about school vouchers? Is there any merit to the idea that misrepresenting ESAs as school vouchers is causing confusion amongst parents?

Arizona (N=60 parents)

• 0% correctly identified that Arizona does not have a school voucher program
• 48% incorrectly stated that Arizona has a voucher program
• 52% responded “unsure”

Florida (N=180 parents)

• 12% correctly identified that Florida does not have a school voucher program
• 55% incorrectly stated that Florida has a school voucher program
• 33% responded “unsure”

Again, these findings have to be taken with a grain of salt. Arizona’s especially. Even so, I believe these are threads worth pulling on.

We obviously cannot say with any certainty why exactly these parents were unable to correctly identify whether their state has an ESA or school voucher program. What I do know is that only having 30% of families in ESA states being able to confirm their state has an ESA program is a problem.

If we want families to participate in these programs, the only opening move is making sure families know the programs exist! The next move is helping families apply and gain admittance into the program if they choose to do so. After that comes connecting families with options, whether that is through a schooling experience previously unavailable to them or through other uses that families desire like tutoring or online courses. Given these numbers, I’m worried that too much of the discussion around how to effectively implement choice is overlooking the critical first step.

Widespread ignorance towards ESAs is the Achilles’ heel of school choice implementation. It also leaves the door open for those opposed to educational choice to misinform and confuse the parents who these programs were designed for. So much progress has been made in just the last 5 years. At the same time, we can’t ignore the signs showing us how much work is left to do.

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[1] One important note, Texas’ ESA program was not yet written into law at the time the survey was fielded (March 28 – April 7, 2025), meaning Texas parents were not included in the sample of parents that has an ESA operating in their state.

[2] Another important note: Because the number of respondents by state, especially for Arizona, is small, results should be interpreted with caution. Smaller sample sizes mean greater uncertainty, and this data may not reflect the broader population in these states.

This was originally published to our Substack.