Ashley Elliott was one of the “hard cases.”

Born addicted to drugs and raised by her single grandmother, life was hard for Ashley. She struggled in school — until 10th grade. After years of fighting, bullying, and poor grades, Ashley found refuge in Lakeland, Florida , when a private Christian school admitted her on a tax credit scholarship. There she found teachers who cared about her, who believed in her.

In turn, Ashley began to believe in herself. Ashley thrived, graduating high school, then college, and embarking upon adulthood as an education advocate.

A thousand miles to the north, Pennsylvania policymakers are grappling with a related policy problem. How can the government guarantee a thorough and efficient education to all students, regardless of their background, socio-economic status, or zip code?

In a case dating back to 2014, William Penn School District v. Pennsylvania Department of Education, the plaintiffs argued the state fell short of its constitutional guarantee, and further, that an overhaul of the school funding system is the only solution. After years of wrangling over the role of money in Pennsylvania public education, the courts finally ruled earlier this year.

The Commonwealth Court ruled that Pennsylvania’s present education funding model is broken, yet stopped short of prescribing a fix, instead leaving solutions to the legislature and governor. In her opinion, Judge Renee Jubelirer emphasized that reform does not have “to be entirely financial ... The options for reform are virtually limitless. The only requirement, that imposed by the Constitution, is that every student receives a meaningful opportunity to succeed academically, socially, and civically, which requires that all students have access to a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary system of public education.”

Fixing a broken system is a tall order, and throwing more money at the system has already been tried. Pennsylvania spends a whopping $21,000 per pupil each year — the eighth highest spending-per-student in the nation — but perennially trends middle of the pack on academic proficiency.

Policymakers should look to Ashley’s home state of Florida for inspiration. Florida has prioritized educational freedom and choice for some two decades. This year they punched it into hyperspace, massively expanding their two main programs — the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship and the Family Empowerment Scholarship — converting each to a universally eligible education savings account.

Florida’s tax credit scholarship program dates back to 2001. Since then, Florida has proven itself a national leader in making education dollars work for teachers and families. According to research from the University of Arkansas , Florida made the largest gains nationwide in education freedom from 2000 to 2019.

Over the same period, low-income students and students with disabilities from Florida dramatically outpaced the national average for similarly situated students. Lest one attribute these gains to education funding, Florida spends, on average , approximately $12,000 per K-12 pupil , just over half of Pennsylvania’s expenditure. What’s more, the most recent data from the Nation’s Report Card show that students with disabilities in Florida outperformed an entire state average for students without disabilities.

And Florida is not an outlier. Arizona offers another shining example of educational freedom and academic success. Arizona has also offered families a broad range of educational freedom and choice for decades. The Canyon State garnered No. 1 rankings in education freedom in 2000 and 20 years later in the updated report. Per Stanford’s Opportunity Project , Arizona led the nation in academic growth from 2008 to 2018, for all students overall, and for low-income students as a subgroup — all while spending even less than Florida .

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While these are just two positive case studies, brand new research from the University of Kentucky supports the broader connection between educational choice and student success, finding “strikingly large test score gains for states that have adopted voucher programs and/or Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), swamping the effect of per pupil K-12 spending on test scores. …Overall, it seems that even a small measure of educational freedom has a large effect.”

In order to provide students with a meaningful opportunity to succeed, Pennsylvania must look to states such as Florida and Arizona for the blueprint. Ashley Elliot is a testament to the transformative power of educational freedom and choice. No child’s academic destiny should be determined by their circumstances, zip code, or their family’s lack of wealth. Every student deserves to thrive in an educational setting that meets their unique needs.

Marc LeBlond is director of policy at EdChoice, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to advance educational freedom and choice for all students as a pathway to successful lives and a stronger society.