The 2026 EdChoice Friedman Index is a comprehensive and easy-to-understand measure of the availability of private K–12 educational choice across the United States. Inspired by Milton and Rose Friedman’s vision of universal choice, the Index assesses how well each state enables families to direct education funding toward the options they deem best, whether public or private.

Since 2020, there has been a rapid increase in educational choice programs across the U.S. While many states have been labeled as offering “universal choice,” many of these states lack accessibility due to caps on funding. The EdChoice Friedman Index measures how much educational choice families really have.

The EdChoice Friedman Index ranges from 0 to 100. To achieve a score of 100 on the Index, a given state must meet each of the following three criteria:

• “All Students”: 100% of the students in the state are eligible to participate in a choice program, with funding available for all who wish to participate (universal funded eligibility).
• “All Options”: All choice students are able to participate in an education savings-style program (ESA), which means families have the opportunity to use the taxpayer funds placed in their child’s account to offset tuition payments at private schools and to purchase educational goods and services outside of schools (e.g. tutoring, textbooks, test fees, special needs therapies, etc).
• “All Dollars”: Average awards per choice student are equal to the average state and local revenue per public school student, which means that choice students receive the same amount of funding as public school students (sans federal funding), on average.