Q&A – School Choice – How Many Florida Families Are Using School Vouchers?
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Today’s entry: Hi Brian, school choice question for you. How many students are now using school vouchers? Have we seen the numbers rise over the past couple of years since the implimentation of universal choice?
Bottom Line: As Governor DeSantis said when he signed the Education, or Universal School Choice bill into law two years ago... Florida is number one when it comes to education freedom and education choice, and today’s bill signing represents the largest expansion of education choice in the history of these United States. Time flies and it’s hard to believe we’re already entering year three of Florida’s universal school choice program. Before diving into the numbers and analysis this is a reminder about how the school choice program is administered.
- A student is eligible for a voucher if the student is a resident of this state and is eligible to enroll in kindergarten through grade 12 in a public school
- Priority/first choice of schools is given to a student whose household income level does not exceed 185 percent of the federal poverty level or who is in foster care or out-of-home care
- Priority/next choice is offered to families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level
- Scholarship amounts averaging $8,200 per eligible student most recently
Last year, year two of Florida’s universal school choice law, resulted in the largest year of school choice expansion in Florida’s history. Prior to the passage of universal school choice, there were about 155,000 students using school vouchers in Florida. Entering this school year there are multiples of that number. Here are the changes we’ve seen:
- 2022-2023 (Pre-Universal Choice): 155,182
- 2023-2024 (Year 1): 220,964
- 2024-2025 (Year 2): 362,173
- 2025-2026 (Year 3): 429,604
As of the start of the new school year we’ve seen growth of 277% in the use of school vouchers with use essentially doubling from year one of univesal school choice to where we are at the onset of year three.
What we’ve seen is incredible growth and popularity of educational choice being placed in the hands of parents and students rather than being placed at the mercy of assigned schools based on where lines are drawn on a map. And most importantly as school choice has grown in Florida, educational outcomes have continued to imporve in Florida. Florida’s K-12 graduation rate is at record highs, Florida’s 4th and 8th grade NAEP scores are at record highs and Florida has been ranked by US News and World Report as the top state or number two for K-college education for three straight years.
According to a study published in the American Economic Journal it was found that the benefits of Florida’s expanded school choice program, benefit everyone. Quoting one of the authors of the study: The positive competitive effects of the launch or expansion of private school choice programs on system-wide educational outcomes is the most consistent finding in the entire field of school choice research. What was found in the research is that students using school choice options commonly performed better, which has long been known – hence the expansion to a universal school choice program – but as mentioned in that quote there’s a system-wide benefit to it.
The bottom line is that as schools lose enrollment to other schools due to competition, they begin to perform better too. As is summed up by the Reason Foundation: The more competition public schools faced for students, the better they performed over a 15-year period (the time frame nearly identical to the NAEP scores in Reason Foundation’s study). Competition led to improvements in test scores and other positive, measurable outcomes, such as declines in absenteeism and suspensions. What this means is that all students are set to benefit from the record amount of school choice being used in Florida – not just the students taking advantage of it. And if school choice is driving and delivering better outcomes in Florida, and if there’s close to three times as much of it today as two years ago, there’s reason to believe this will be the most successful school year in Florida’s history yet.