Freedom in the 50 States

School choice has been a dynamic policy area at the state level since 2020. State average educational freedom has been rising consistently since 2010, as many states have expanded opportunities for parents and students.

The single most important educational freedom variable is the index of tax credit and deduction laws for private education. We have assumed that the average “broad-eligibility” program has a per-student benefit of about $3,250. We use research on the price elasticity of demand for private schooling to estimate the number of families that would take advantage of this type of program if it were available nationwide, and we come up with an estimate of 7.5 million.¹ We also add a small bonus ($20 per student) to those students remaining in public schools, with the idea that their families also benefit slightly from the mere availability of more choice. Together, those estimates imply that moving nationwide from a situation of no tax credit scholarships to broad-eligibility programs would benefit families about $14.5 billion a year.

Other important variables for educational freedom include publicly funded voucher law size and scope, mandatory state licensure of private school teachers, mandatory state or local approval of private schools, years of compulsory schooling, and extent of private school curriculum control. Vouchers are worth less than tax credit scholarship funds because the variance is less. Still, a state that enacts a universal education savings account (ESA) will see twice as large a boost to its freedom score as a state that enacts a broad-eligibility tax credit program. Since the closing of our data, states have continued to expand school choice, most notably Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Utah.² These states, along with any others that pass such programs in the remainder of this biennium, can expect to see significant gains on the next edition of this freedom index.

Less significant are public school choice (“open enrollment” policies), mandatory registration of private schools, existence of a homeschool law, homeschool curriculum control, homeschool teacher qualifications, homeschool standardized testing, homeschool notification index, and homeschool record-keeping index. All the homeschool variables combined make up less than one-quarter of a percent of the index. Their weight is small because few students are homeschooled (though the COVID-19 pandemic educational experience may have permanently increased the homeschool population), and the variance in state policies is not as significant in the post-2000 period as it was in the 1980s.

Table 1 reflects the situation facing parents and students in early 2023, capturing policies enacted by December 31, 2022.