Universal school choice policies are sweeping the nation. But not all policies are created equal. As the experience in two states demonstrates, how the policies are designed matters greatly.
Both Louisiana and New Hampshire recently expanded eligibility for their education choice policies to all K–12 students. Yet although the population of Louisiana is more than three times larger than New Hampshire’s, the number of new scholarship students in the latter is more than five times than in the former.
About 6,000 students will receive Louisiana’s GATOR scholarships, but about 5,200 of those students were already receiving school vouchers under the state’s now-defunct Opportunity Scholarship Program.
Despite the promise inherent in the name of the “Give All True Opportunity to Rise Scholarship Program,” only about 800 new students will be given that opportunity—a tiny fraction of the more than 39,000 students who applied. The vast majority of Louisiana scholarship applicants were consigned to a waitlist.
By contrast, only 295 Granite State students are on a waitlist. Nearly all the roughly 11,000 applicants will receive Education Freedom Accounts.
Why is New Hampshire doing a much better job of expanding education opportunity?
The devil is in the details.
Although Louisiana has no cap on enrollment, the legislature only appropriated enough funding for about 800 new students. Meanwhile, funding for New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Accounts is tied to the state’s school funding, meaning that every eligible child receives funding.
New Hampshire legislators set a cap of 10,000 scholarships, but exempted “priority students” who are from low-income families, have a disability, or received a scholarship in the prior year. That means that even though the program has hit the 10,000-student cap, priority students may continue to apply and receive scholarships.
Moreover, Granite State lawmakers designed the cap to allow student enrollment to grow organically over time. Whenever the enrollment cap is hit, the cap will increase by 25% in the following year. Next year, the cap will be 12,500 students.
New Hampshire lawmakers imposed the cap to phase in the scholarships after school choice critics raised concerns about runaway costs. Reaching Higher NH, a left-wing group opposed to school choice, had estimated that 20,125 students would participate in year one—which would include every K–12 student attending private school the state, as well as the nearly 5,000 out-of-state students who are not eligible for the scholarships.
In reality, the enrollment growth was in line with the more reasonable estimates by the Josiah Bartlett Center, New Hampshire’s free market think tank, which were based on the actual enrollment growth of similar education choice programs nationwide. The center estimated that the expansion would attract 4,792 new students. As of early August, there were 4,754 new applicants (including the 295 students on the waitlist), meaning the Josiah Bartlett Center was off by just 38 students, or 0.8%.
New Hampshire’s education savings account policy is on the path to producing savings.
The same Josiah Bartlett Center report estimated that the Education Freedom Account expansion would increase costs to the state by only “0.1% of total state expenditures on all public services” while reducing costs to local taxpayers by more than $20 million by year two. That’s because local taxpayer revenue pays for most of K–12 education in the state, and the average cost per pupil at New Hampshire public schools is $26,320, more than five times the average Education Freedom Account award of about $5,200.
Louisiana’s GATOR scholarships are also more cost-effective than are traditional district schools. The scholarships range from about $5,200 to $7,600, depending on household income, compared with more than $15,000 per pupil spent on average at Louisiana’s district schools. Students with special needs can receive scholarships worth about the state average for all students, with and without special needs.
The unnecessary limits imposed by Louisiana lawmakers were inspired by hyperbolic claims that Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program was “bankrupting the state.” In reality, the Arizona Department of Education posted a $4.3 million surplus, and the net effect of Arizona’s school choice policies produced savings of $352,000 relative to budget forecasts for fiscal year 2024.
Another design flaw in Louisiana’s GATOR Scholarship program is that, at least in the first two phases, it requires most new students to either be entering kindergarten or switching out of a public school. Since only a tiny fraction of kindergarteners will receive a GATOR scholarship, most families would have to enroll their child in a public school—even if that school is low-performing or otherwise not a good fit—to retain even the hope of winning the scholarship lottery the next year.
As a local private school leader (who preferred to remain anonymous) told me, the switcher policy will have “great adverse effects” even for students fortunate enough to receive a scholarship in later years. By the time those students receive such scholarships, “they will have experienced tremendous disruption by changing and attending multiple different schools in their transformative years.”
The switcher policy is yet another provision that’s designed to control costs but which is both harmful and unnecessary.
As Arizona’s universal education savings account policy has demonstrated, the switcher rate tends to increase over time. In the first year after expanding eligibility to all students in 2022, nearly 80% of new ESA students had not been enrolled in a public school in the prior year. In the most recent quarterly report, though, 57% of new ESA students had switched from a public school in the prior year—and that doesn’t even include students who had switched in prior years or who wouldn’t have attended a public school but for the existence of the scholarship program.
Louisiana lawmakers have much to learn from New Hampshire about education freedom and choice. The first lesson is to put students first. That means ensuring the Give All True Opportunity to Rise Scholarship Program truly lives up to its name.