School Choice FAQs

EdChoice offers free, informative, printed resource guides, and we’ll ship them straight to you. Need a quick explainer of the types of school choice and how they work? Need a simple breakdown of what the research says about school choice programs? We’ve got you covered. For more information on how to get yours mailed to you for free, click the button below.

School choice allows public education funds to follow students to the schools or services that best fit their needs —whether that’s to a public school, private school, charter school, home school or any other learning environment families choose. We created a resource that defines and illustrates school choice in our organization’s view, and if you keep scrolling on that page, we provide you with definitions for the many other types of school choice that exist today. To visit that resource, click the button below.

There are 74 educational choice programs on the books in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. For detailed information about each program, click the button below.

School choice has been around for nearly 150 years. Vermont’s town-tuitioning program has served families since 1869. In 1991, Wisconsin became the first state to create a modern school voucher program. In 1991, Minnesota became the first state to create a law allowing charter schools. You can learn when each private educational choice program in America was enacted and launched in our Schooling in America Dashboard.

In America’s system of residentially assigned district schooling, those who have the financial means exercise school choice by purchasing homes in districts that have high-performing schools. School choice programs break the link between housing and access to a quality education with the goal of expanding educational opportunity to all children, especially the most disadvantaged. At present, the school choice programs currently operating in 32 states plus Washington, D.C. primarily benefit children from low-income families and students with special needs. To learn more about what the data says, click the button below.

Test scores can only tell us so much about a child’s schooling experience. But if we look at test scores only, the vast majority of random assignment studies—the gold-standard method in social science—find school choice programs help improve students’ academic performance, especially over time. There are a couple studies at the state level that show negative effects in the first year or two as students acclimate to new school cultures and curricula, but all show those students effectively turn around in three to four years. To learn more, click the button below.

There’s a common misconception that if students leave a public school using voucher funds, those who choose to stay will have less money and fall behind academically. School choice programs affect public schools’ funding and resources in the same way they’re affected when a student leaves because their family moved to a new district—except with school choice programs, public schools get to keep almost all of the federal and local tax dollars and usually a portion of the state funds allocated for each child. Yes, public schools get to keep a significant portion of money for a student they no longer have the responsibility of educating. When you look at student performance, the research shows public school students perform no worse, and sometimes better, because the voucher program encourages public schools to improve to meet students’ needs. To learn more, click the button below.

School choice is designed to help all children, regardless of their income or neighborhood. The ZIP Code-based public education system has kept low-income kids out of quality schools, and studies have shown it also has contributed to—nay, exacerbated—socioeconomic segregation in public schools for decades. Every study of school voucher programs, on the other hand, shows they help students go from more segregated schools to more integrated schools. To learn more about what the research says, click the button below.

A well-designed school choice program allows funding the state already allocates for an individual student’s K–12 education to follow that student to the schools and service providers that best meet their needs—whether that’s a public school, a school in another district, a charter school, a private school, online learning, learning at home or a customized learning experience. To learn more about how the different types of school choice programs are funded, click the button below.

School choice programs affect public schools’ funding and resources in the same way they’re affected when a student leaves because their family moved to a new district—except with school choice programs, public schools get to keep almost all of the federal and local tax dollars and usually a portion of the state funds allocated for each child. Yes, public schools get to keep a significant portion of money for a student they no longer have the responsibility of educating. To learn more, click the button below.

According to five different surveys conducted in 2017, most of the American public supports school choice, though many still don’t know about the issue. Opposition to school choice is weak and continues to decrease, especially as more people learn about how school choice works. To learn more about what the research says, click the button below.

There is no consensus among teachers about school choice. Some are passionately for it. Some are vehemently against it. Many are simply unsure and need more information. For examples of things we’ve heard educators say about school choice, click the button below.

If a program expands educational options for kids beyond their ZIP Code-assigned school, EdChoice supports it, though we do have a preference based on what we know parents want. For more than two decades, EdChoice has been a national leader advocating for and studying private educational choice programs, including education savings accounts (ESAs), school vouchers, tax-credit education savings accounts, tax-credit scholarships and individual tax credits and deductions. For definitions of all of the different types of school choice we support, click the button below.

School choice is constitutional at the federal level and in most states, as long as policies and programs are designed properly. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that public funding can be allocated to a family to spend on a child’s K–12 schooling, including for faith-based education. Some states have constitutional language prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars to support children who attend faith-based schools, but those provisions have been challenged federally and at the state level. For more detailed information, click the button below.

Accountability is best left in the hands of families, not bureaucrats, and we know that parents care far less about test scores than they do about students having access to quality instruction in safe, nurturing schooling environments that reflect their values. That said, state policymakers have the ability to design school choice programs that represent the will of their citizens, and those programs can include state-based or national testing, health and safety requirements and other regulations. Ultimately, we trust families to know what’s best for their kids. To delve deeper into the issue of accountability, click the button below.

Studies show school choice programs generally have a positive effect on a student’s character. Students in school choice programs are more tolerant than their public school peers, and they are more likely to vote, volunteer and engage in other civic activities. To learn more about what the research says, click the button below.

School choice empowers families with students who have special needs to find what works for them. In fact, many school choice programs across the United States have been designed specifically to serve students with special needs because they often get left behind when they are simply assigned to a school under the traditional system. It’s important to note that families of students with special needs are informed of their rights when they opt into non-traditional programs. It’s also important to note that education savings accounts or ESAs, which allow families to tailor schooling options beyond tuition—for example, with specialized therapy or tutoring—represent the next wave of school choice and can be particularly helpful for students with special needs who require customized learning opportunities. To delve deeper, click the button below.

Contrary to popular belief, the United States has far less school choice than many other nations. To learn more about how choice is working in those countries, click the button below.

EdChoice is funded by individuals and organizations who share our mission to make sure all K–12 students in the United States have the opportunity to access the schooling options that work for them, whether that’s public, private, public charter, homeschooling or another type. To learn more about how EdChoice discloses its donors, click the button below.