A Commitment to All Students

Why EdChoice is redefining what it means to be a universal school choice state

The school choice movement, thanks in large part to supporters like you, has achieved tremendous successes in recent years, with more students eligible for and participating in school choice than ever before.  

Last year, we celebrated with you when we achieved a major milestone: More than one million students were in a private school choice program of their family’s choosing. And together, we marked win after win as we added more states to the school choice map. More importantly, a growing number of states now offer all families within their borders access to choice. 

But even with these triumphs, far too many families aren’t getting what they want. According to EdChoice’s monthly public opinion tracker, only 40% of families would keep their children in a public school system if they were given other options. But in practice, some 80% of children are still educated in the traditional public school system.  

Why is there such a gap in preference versus practice, when so many of the nation’s children are now eligible to participate in a program of their family’s choice?  

Because creating school choice programs that are merely available to all students isn’t enough. To “change the character of education” as first envisioned by EdChoice founder Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, programs must be available to all students, fully funded with predictable, sustainable revenue streams, and offer families wide flexibility in how they may spend program dollars. And, importantly, parents need to know their options and understand how to use choice if that is their preference. 

This is why EdChoice has committed itself to lead the effort to triple the number of states with true universal freedom and increase the number of families enrolled in and aware of educational choice programs by 30% by 2030.  

What do we mean by truly universal programs?  

First, school choice programs must be available to all students. As with public schools, school choice programs should be available to all, and participation should happen on a first come, first served basis. We’ve made tremendous progress on this front. Just a few years ago, not a single program in the country met this first standard of universal choice, but today, 16 programs boast universal eligibility.  

Second, school choice programs must provide all options to participating families. Milton Friedman often said the way to transform the education system was to create a robust marketplace of options, “a system of free choice … a system of competition, innovation.”  

Programs that only offer families the choice between a public school or a private one fall short of the potential school choice offers. They must instead allow families to choose from all educational options, letting them customize a learning experience that meets the unique needs and interests of their child. And policymakers and program implementers must make it easy for new educational providers to enter the marketplace, avoiding unnecessary regulations.  

Third, school choice programs must award all available dollars to students. Policymakers must enable programs’ longevity and ensure that eligible students do not linger on a waitlist. To do that, they should support school choice programs through ongoing and sustainable revenue sources, like those provided through the state’s funding formula, education budget, or general revenue streams with escalators and automatic renewal. And students deserve all the state funding set aside for them in their district of residence, as well as access to any local property tax funds. Moreover, their parents should be free to add to their K-12 fund allotments their own personal funds. They should also be free to save unused K-12 funds for post-secondary opportunities. 

Milton Friedman reminded us that school choice is a means to an end. “The purpose of vouchers is to enable parents to have free choice, and the purpose of having free choice is to provide competition and allow the educational industry to get out of the 17th century and get into the 21st century and have more innovation and more evolvement. There is no reason why you cannot have the same kind of change in the provision of education as you have had in industries like the computer industry, the television industry, and other things.”  

Filling up a school choice map means little if education providers and policymakers can’t use these programs to innovate and provide all students the opportunity to fulfill their potential by learning in the environment of their family’s choosing.  

By working to ensure all students have all options and all dollars, we can unlock new opportunities for innovation and provide the education each child deserves. The progress we’ve made so far is just the beginning. Together, we can build a brighter future where all children have the freedom to learn in the way that works best for them. Thank you for your commitment to this critical cause.