Nearly thirty years ago in Milwaukee, WI, a private school choice program was launched that gave vouchers to around 10,000 low-income students to attend a private school. This month, the number of children participating in a publicly funded private school choice program surpassed one million. Almost half of these students, including about 1,000 in Missouri, have education savings accounts (ESAs) that allow them to spend their state education dollars at the school of their choice or for homeschooling.
The single program started in Wisconsin in 1996 has grown to 75 school choice programs in 33 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. And in just the last few years, 10 states have implemented universal school choice programs in which all or nearly all children in the state are eligible. These states are Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia. Alabama and Louisiana will be joining the list next year.
When the one million private school choice students are added to the 3.7 million charter school students the result is that one in five children in the United States is receiving a publicly funded education outside of traditional public schools. What was once considered controversial has become mainstream.
