Colleen Hroncich
Educational freedom is blossoming across the country. More than 70 school choice programs are now operating in 30-plus states, putting an unprecedented share of families in the driver’s seat of their children’s education. But this rapid expansion has exposed a hard truth: passing a choice program is the easy part. Designing one that actually works—and keeps working—is trickier.
That’s why I’m excited to share my new report, Let 1,000 Flowers Bloom: Best Practices for Advancing Educational Freedom.
We see similar stories throughout the states when school choice programs are enacted. Louisiana’s LA GATOR program launched in 2025 with universal eligibility, but funded only 6,000 of nearly 40,000 applicants. North Carolina left 54,000 families in limbo before lawmakers overrode a veto to clear the backlog. Utah waitlisted roughly 17,000 students its first year. Without key components in a scholarship program, families face wait lists, red tape, and lost opportunities.
What are these key components?
Universal eligibility is the starting point. Restricting programs to specific income brackets or special-needs categories keeps some kids trapped in schools that don’t work for them and forces other families to pay twice—once in taxes and again in tuition. A smaller pool of participants stifles the competition that drives new educational options to emerge. Universal funding ensures that all eligible individuals can participate. This can be best achieved by tying program funding to existing state per-pupil formulas (as Arizona and Florida do) or building in automatic escalators that increase caps when demand approaches the limit. New Hampshire’s Education Freedom Accounts use this mechanism, growing 25 percent whenever 90 percent of slots fill. Rollover provisions end the “use it or lose it” trap that pushes families toward wasteful year-end spending and gives parents room to plan for rising costs as kids get older. Competitive administration breaks up the single-vendor monopolies that have quietly taken over ESA implementation in many states. When one company controls account setup, payments, and approvals, families become an afterthought. Opening the market to multiple vendors makes parents, not state agencies, the customers. Streamlined expenditure approval is the daily experience test. Debit cards, automatic approval with risk-based auditing, optional online marketplaces, and flexible reimbursement all reduce the friction that can overburden parents who are trying to embrace educational freedom.In the report, I also examine various program designs—ESAs, tax-credit ESAs, refundable tax credits, and the long-proposed but untried Universal Tuition Tax Credit. Florida and Arizona are spotlighted to show how using multiple programs can create a durable ecosystem. In Florida, more than half of all students now attend a school of choice.
As I note in the report,
Ultimately, the test of educational freedom is whether parents can rely on it year after year, not just when appropriators allow. A well-designed system ensures that funding follows the student, options grow with demand, and families—not bureaucrats or monopolies—decide what education looks like.
By implementing thoughtful reforms that incorporate the features outlined in this paper, states can ensure that today’s surge in educational freedom becomes a permanent part of America’s education landscape.
With children increasingly having access to a diverse range of educational options, the future is bright. The goal of this report is to help pave the way to keep—and improve—the programs helping lead us to that future.
