Frequently Searched

The Evidence on School Choice is Out There, Let's Use It

October 15, 2014

Today, 17 states and the District of Columbia allow children to use scholarships to choose between public and private schools, regardless of what public school their zip code assigns them to. Twenty years ago, only one state offered parents this freedom: Wisconsin.

Since 2000, the number of children using a scholarship to attend a private school has increased 748 percent according to the Alliance for School Choice’s 2012-13 Yearbook. You read that right: 748 percent. Nearly 250,000 children attend private schools around the country using an education savings account, voucher, or tax credit scholarship.

How did we go from zero children free to choose their school to 250,000 in 18 different parts of the country?

The answer: Choice works. A study of the voucher program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, found that enrolling in the voucher program “increases the likelihood of a student graduating from high school, enrolling in a four-year college, and persisting in college by 4-7 percentage points.”

A similar program in Washington, D.C. “significantly improved students’ chances of graduating from high school.”

Milwaukee’s program was the first of its kind, anywhere. Now, the program has expanded to children in Racine, along with 16 other states and D.C. that have voucher or tax credit scholarship systems. Washington, D.C.’s scholarships are also the first of their kind—a federally-funded private school tuition voucher program for elementary and high school students. The success of these programs helped inspire other states to give parents the same freedom and it is revolutionizing education all over the country.

Milwaukee and Washington, D.C.’s programs were both a “first” and had requirements that researchers from a university or research institution evaluate the programs. The positive results for children in these programs inspired lawmakers around the country who then gave more children the chance at a great education.

Arizona’s education savings accounts are also the first of their kind, so it’s only reasonable that legislators ask researchers to conduct a similar evaluation on the program’s effectiveness. What better way to convince parents and lawmakers that education savings accounts can give every child the chance at a great education than to show how well they work?

Learn more:

Alliance for School Choice: 2012-13 School Choice Yearbook

University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform/School Choice Demonstration Project: The Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Summary of Final Reports

U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance: Evaluation of the Impact of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Final Report

 

 

More on this issue

Donate Now

Help all Americans live freer, happier lives. Join the Goldwater Institute as we defend and strengthen freedom in all 50 states.

Donate Now

Since 1988, the Goldwater Institute has been in the liberty business — defending and promoting freedom, and achieving more than 400 victories in all 50 states. Donate today to help support our mission.

We Protect Your Rights

Our attorneys defend individual rights and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Need Help? Submit a case.

Get Connected to Goldwater

Sign up for the latest news, event updates, and more.

Wait! Don’t close this yet!

We are grateful for your support of the Goldwater Institute’s efforts to advance and defend liberty throughout the United States. For over 36 years, we’ve been defending the rights of Americans to live their lives free from government interference.

And Goldwater is unique in that we direct our efforts to the 50 states where we introduce and advance innovative ideas that expand freedom. And we fight in courtrooms and capitals nationwide to defend individual liberty.

In 2024 alone, we scored over 50 policy and litigation victories defending liberty!

And that’s just the beginning.

Our plans for 2025 include:

  • Stopping pernicious DEI and other woke programs in America’s universities.
  • Ensuring that patients suffering from rare and terminal diseases have access to cutting-edge, lifesaving medical treatments, without having to first seek permission from the government.
  • Defending parental rights across the United States so that parents can send their kids to the school that best fits their needs, free from leftist indoctrination.
  • Eliminating government interference in the fundamental right of individuals to own property and use it as they see fit.
  • And much, much more

We seek to restore the presumption of liberty; that people are free to act without first asking permission from the government.

But we cannot do this without you. Will you join us as we fight to preserve and advance liberty throughout the country? As we seek new and innovative ways to defend freedom in all 50 states?

And there’s great news: Thanks to a generous Goldwater supporter, your donation today will be doubled!

So please, join us in fighting to advance liberty and score real wins for freedom from coast to coast!