2025 EdChoice Spending Share Rankings  

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

After two years of rapid growth in education choice legislation across the country, 13 states now offer programs with universal eligibility. While not all those programs have launched yet, this is as good an opportunity as any to review just how big or small school choice programs are relative to their public K–12 counterpart. 

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 expenses, as most recently reported by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education.   

Here’s what goes into our calculations. For national choice program numbers, reflected in the first interactive chart below, we carry forward the most recently available financial data as of December 2024, reported in The ABCs. We divide these financial numbers by current and total public school expenditures as reported by NCES. For years 2022–23 through 2024–25, we projected annual increases in expenditures to equal the actual average year–over–year changes in the from 2018–19 to 2020–21.  

This is the same projection method we used last year. We don’t include 2021–22 in our average year–over–year increase calculation as ESSER funds produced a significant year–over–year increase in expenditures and including that outlier would skew our accuracy looking forward. 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.  

Findings 

Altogether, private school choice programs have allocated $8.2 billion to students in the last year, which is equivalent to 1.1% of a projected $762 billion spent on current expenditures by public schools and 0.9% of a projected $885 billion spent on all expenditures.   

The results below are organized from the greatest share to smallest. Florida has become the first state to spend more than 10% of its combined private choice and public school expenditures on its choice programs, rising from an 8% spending share in 2024 to 10% this year. As it was last year, Arizona is a clear second. Arkansas and Utah made significant jumps in the rankings as their ESAs with universal eligibility took off. We don’t include the new ESAs in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, or Wyoming, nor do we include Oklahoma’s refundable tax credit, as we’re still awaiting participation and funding data available for these programs. All other states not included are tied for last with zero dollars spent on private school choice programs. The number in parentheses following the state name shows the state’s ranking in 2024, which you can read more about in last year’s post. Green indicates an improvement in ranking, while red indicates the state ranking has fallen from last year. Black indicates the ranking remains unchanged.

2025 Ranking. State (2024 Ranking) 

Private School Choice Programs Available| Private School Choice Spending | Percentage of state’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures (State’s K–12 current expenditures) 

1. Florida (1) 
ESA (2), Tax–Credit ESA | $3.7 billion | 10.12% of Florida’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($36.8 billion)  

2. Arizona (2) 
ESA, Tax–Credit Scholarships (4) | $1.06 billion | 8.35% of Arizona’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($12.7 billion)   

3. Wisconsin (3) 
Vouchers (4) | $631 million | 4.96% of Wisconsin’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($12.7 billion)  

4. Ohio (6) 
Vouchers (5), Tax–Credit Scholarship | $962 million | 3.69% of Ohio’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($24.9 billion)  

5. Indiana (5) 
ESA, Voucher, Tax–Credit Scholarship | $509 million | 3.64% of Indiana’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($13.9 billion)  

6. Vermont (4)  
Voucher | $58 million | 58% of Vermont’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($2.3 billion) 

7. Iowa (7) 
ESA, Tax–Credit Scholarship | $152 million | 2.15% of Iowa’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($7.1 billion)  

8. Arkansas (25) 
ESA, Tax–Credit Scholarship | $100 million | 1.65% of Arkansas’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($6.1 billion)  

9. West Virginia (12) 
ESA | $54 million (early estimate) | 1.52% of West Virginia’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($3.6 billion)  

10. North Carolina (9) 
ESA, Voucher | $255 million | 1.47% of North Carolina’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($17.3 billion)  

11. Utah (22) 
ESA, Voucher, Tax–Credit Scholarship | $96 million | 1.26% of Utah’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($7.6 billion)  

12. Maine (8)  
Voucher | $47 million | 25% of Maine’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($3.8 billion) 

13. New Hampshire (10) 
ESA, Tax–Credit Scholarship | $31 million | 0.91% of New Hampshire’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($3.4 billion)  

14. District of Columbia (11) 
Voucher | $18 million | 0.66% of D.C.’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($2.7 billion)  

15. Pennsylvania (14) 
Tax–Credit Scholarships (2) | $184 million | 0.57% of Pennsylvania’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($32.4 billion)  

16. Georgia (13)  
ESA, Voucher, Tax–Credit Scholarship | $124 million | 0.54% of Georgia’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($22.9 billion) 

17. Louisiana (15) 
ESA, Vouchers (2), Tax–Credit Scholarship | $53 million | 0.52% of Louisiana’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($10.3 billion)  

18. Tennessee (19) 
ESA (2) | $41 million | 0.37% of Tennessee’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($10.3 billion)  

19. Alabama (16) 
ESA, Tax–Credit Scholarship, Refundable Tax Credit | $26 million | 0.31% of Alabama’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($8.6 billion)  

20. Oklahoma (18) 
Refundable Tax Credit, Voucher, Tax–Credit Scholarship | $19 million | 0.24% of Oklahoma’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($8.0 billion)  

21. South Dakota (20) 
Tax–Credit Scholarship | $3 million | 0.19% of South Dakota’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($1.7 billion)  

22. Nevada (21) 
Tax–Credit Scholarship | $10 million | 0.18% of Nevada’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($5.3 billion)  

23. Missouri (30) 
Tax Credit ESA | $13 million | 0.12% of Missouri’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($8.6 billion)  

24. Minnesota (32) 
Refundable Tax Credit | $15 million | 0.12% of Minnesota’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($13.3 billion)  

25. Virginia (26) 
Tax–Credit Scholarship | $21 million | 0.11% of Virginia’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($19.1 billion)  

26. Montana (23)  
ESA, Tax–Credit Scholarship | $2 million | 0.10% of Montana’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($2.2 billion)  

27. Mississippi (24)  
ESA, Vouchers (2) | $4 million | 0.10% of Mississippi’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($4.6 billion)  

28. South Carolina (28) 
ESA, Tax–Credit Scholarship, Refundable Tax Credit | $8 million | 0.08% of South Carolina’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($10.5 billion)   

29. Kansas (27)  
Tax–Credit Scholarship | $4 million | 0.06% of Kansas’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($7.0 billion)  

30. Maryland (29) 
Voucher | $9 million | 0.05% of Maryland’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($16.4 billion)   

31. Rhode Island (28)  
Tax–Credit Scholarship | $1 million | 0.05% of Rhode Island’s combined program and public K–12 current expenditures ($2.8 billion)  

Notes 

Our program spending totals reflect data we collected through December 2024, which are included in the 2025 edition of The ABCs of School Choice.

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.  

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 skew results by emphasizing programs that offer little money to many students, which don’t represent the modern choice landscape as we are trying to understand it.