AMAC Exclusive – By Aaron Flanigan
After years of little state-level action on the school choice front, six states have now enacted universal school choice in rapid succession—and as a result, in a historically positive sign for the school choice movement, the fight for freedom in education is finally gaining momentum.
Republican state legislators in West Virginia launched the school choice revolution in 2021, when the Mountain State passed a landmark education savings account program which allows families to “use their education tax dollars for private school tuition, tutoring, educational therapy, or other educational expenses.” After legal challenges from the left, the legislation was ultimately ruled constitutional by the West Virginia Supreme Court last October, setting the stage for a school choice legislative blitz in a growing group of red and purple states.
GOP lawmakers kept the momentum going last summer when Arizona passed legislation to open the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account to all K-12 students statewide. The program allots $7,000 per year to students who choose not to attend public school, which can be used for education needs such as private school tuition, tutoring, or homeschooling.
“This is a monumental moment for all of Arizona’s students,” said then-Arizona Governor Doug Ducey upon signing the legislation. “Our kids will no longer be locked in underperforming schools. Today, we’re unlocking a whole new world of opportunity for them and their parents.”
Shortly after the passage of the Arizona bill, lawmakers in Iowa passed the Students First Act, which similarly makes state education funding available to K-12 students who choose not to attend public school.
Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, the Iowa law establishes a three-year plan to enact universal school choice. It starts in the first year with “private school students with household incomes at or below 300% of the federal poverty level,” and ultimately expands to all K-12 students in the 2025-2026 school year.
“Public schools are the foundation of our education system and for most families they will continue to be the option of choice, but they aren’t the only choice,” said Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. “For some families, a different path may be better for their children. With this bill, every child in Iowa, regardless of zip code or income, will have access to the school best suited for them.”
Utah and Arkansas have also followed suit. In January, Utah became the third state to join the universal school choice movement with its Funding for Teacher Salaries and Optional Education Act. And just this month, newly inaugurated Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas signed into law the LEARNS Act, which phases in a universal voucher program over a three-year period.
Similarly, legislators in Florida recently passed a landmark bill to universalize state-funded vouchers by way of removing income caps for eligibility. Beginning with low-income families, the bill will provide parents with $8,000 for educational needs. Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law just this week, making Florida the sixth state—and the fourth state this year—to implement universal school choice.
Many of these legislative initiatives also include provisions to ban Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, and other forms of left-wing indoctrination in the classroom.
Fortunately, it appears this legislative momentum is just the start of the American school choice movement.
In an encouraging sign for parental rights advocates, a growing slate of other states—including Texas—are also gaining ground in the fight to provide educational freedom. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas is aggressively promoting SB 8, which would delegate $8,000 per student to assist with private school tuition.
As momentum for the school choice movement continues to build, former president and 2024 Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has outlined a bold policy agenda to cement freedom of education at the federal level. For instance, he has called for a “parental bill of rights” that promotes curriculum transparency and universal school choice, as well as the implementation of “direct election” of school principals by parents. “If any principal is not getting the job done, the parents should be able to vote to fire them and select someone who will,” he said in a January policy video. “This will be the ultimate form of local control.”
Additionally, in a March speech in Davenport, Iowa, Trump called for a nationwide school choice program. “I’ve always been very, very strong on education,” he said. “I’ve seen what you’ve done here [in Iowa], and as president, I’ll fight to expand that right to every single state in America.”
These policy proposals indicate that Trump intends to build on his achievements for educational freedom during his first term in the White House. Notably, Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 allowed parents to use up to $10,000 from an education savings account to pay for K-12 tuition costs at schools of their choice. “We’re fighting for school choice, which really is the civil rights [issue] of all time in this country,” Trump said in a June 2020 speech.
As the fight for freedom in education marches on, conservatives have many reasons to be hopeful about reforming our nation’s education system and ending the reign of political indoctrination in American classrooms. By every indication, the Republican Party’s school choice revolution is only just beginning.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
