More than one million American K-12 students utilized private school choice last year, nearly double the number from just five years ago. This growth has been fueled by the rapid spread of school choice programs, such as education savings accounts (ESAs), vouchers, and tax credit scholarships, which allow state tax dollars to fund education beyond an assigned public school.

One million is a big number, but this just scratches the surface when it comes to the number of families who would like other educational options. Polling consistently finds that only around 40 percent of parents would choose a regular public school if they had other options, but around 83 percent of the country’s 54 million students attend a regular public school. This huge mismatch shows the potential impact as school choice continues to spread.
A Brief History of Public Education and School Choice
Let’s back up for a minute to better understand what I mean by school choice. Starting in the mid-to-late 1800s, states began getting more involved in education. This largely involved creating school districts, assigning children to schools based on where they lived, and sending tax dollars to those schools. Over time, there has been increasing recognition that different students have different needs and one size cannot fit all. Since states mandate school funding and attendance, people began to push for scholarship programs that would allow a portion of education tax dollars to be used at private schools.
In 1990, the first modern school voucher was created in Milwaukee to provide private school tuition help for lower-income families. Other states followed suit, creating school vouchers or tax credit scholarships, which are funded by private donations that receive a tax credit rather than direct tax funding. In 2011, Arizona created the first education savings account program, which allowed funds to be used for a variety of educational expenses, such as computers, curricula, and services for student...