Editor’s note: This post contains an image that includes a racial effigy.

Jennifer Lee and Kyev Tatum agree that Texas’ Black students do not receive the same academic support as their peers, that schools punish them unfairly and that recent state laws silence Black history and perspectives in the classroom.

But the two Black Texans sharply diverge on whether the state’s will make education in Texas better or worse for students who look like them.

Lee feels confident that vouchers, which allow families to use public funds for private school and home-schooling costs, will allow the state to drain money from a public school student population while benefiting and . That’s what she sees in other states with vouchers, often referred to as “school choice.”

“It’s impossible to research a school choice program and not come away understanding that it has been detrimental almost everywhere it’s touched,” Lee said.

Tatum, a Fort Worth pastor, believes vouchers will provide Black families who are frustrated by the shortcomings of public education the funding needed to build private schooling options.

“There’s not one person in the whole entire country who can look me in the eye and tell me that public schools have done right by Black kids,” Tatum said.

Texas families faced a to apply for vouchers, which will provide home-schoolers up to $2,000 per year, private school students $10,500 and children with disabilities up to $30,000. State leaders are now deciding which students will receive funding for the 2026-27 school year, pending their acceptance to a school. Of almost , 45% are white, 23% are Hispanic and 12% are Black.

As Texas prepares for its inaugural school year offering vouchers, Lee and Tatum’s opposing viewpoints on what it will mean for Black students differ as much as their perspectives on school vouchers’ discriminatory history in Texas. In 1957, Texas lawmakers proposed a voucher plan as part of a slate of bills introduced to avoid compliance with the landmark Supreme Court decision making it illegal for schools to separate children based on race.

Since that time, the Legislature has grown more racially and ethnically diverse, though it is still .

And Hispanic students now make up the majority of public school students, surpassing white students in enrollment. Yet no other racial or ethnic group lags further behind their school peers than Black children, who make up 13% of Texas students but and .

When today’s Republicans pitched school vouchers, they promoted them as a state-funded option for families to escape the boundaries of their local school districts. The movement achieved its crowning moment after Gov. Greg Abbott and his campaigned against House Republicans who opposed vouchers, helping elect new lawmakers who voted for the program.

“Gone are the days that families are limited to only the school assigned by government,” Abbott said moments before signing the voucher legislation. “The day has arrived that empowers parents to choose the school that’s best for their child.”

Vouchers became Texas law in an era when Republicans say diversity efforts have shifted schools’ focus from core academics toward political activism. They believe such efforts have effectively given people of color preferential treatment.

In recent years, Texas lawmakers have also required public schools to teach about in ways that ensure white students do not feel guilt. Districts can for as long as considered necessary, a form of punishment against Black students. And campus leaders can when creating policies or making hiring decisions, despite evidence that Black educators for students.

“DEI agendas divide us rather than unite us and have no place in the state of Texas,” Abbott said in an banning diversity, equity and inclusion policies in state agencies. “These radical policies deviate from constitutional principles and deny diverse thought. Every Texan is equal under the law, including the state and federal Constitutions, both of which prohibit government discrimination based on race.”

Tatum is fed up. His support for vouchers is about rescuing as many Black kids as possible from public schools.

“What I’m saying is: Those who want to stay in the house and burn, stay in the house,” Tatum said. “But for those of us who don’t want to burn, open the door, allow me to leave, and give me my money so that I can give it to a house that’s not burning, but thriving.”

Lee worries vouchers will leave fewer resources for kids who remain in public schools. She also questions why Texas officials want anything to do with an initiative once proposed to derail Black children from equal opportunity.

“You might believe in parent choice and all of that,” Lee said. “But when you start talking about you, as a person, sitting in church on Sunday, are you really OK with saying, ‘Well, yeah, I do want segregation again’?”

“The best education is an investment”

Texas public schools receive funding based on student attendance, meaning they will lose money for every child who leaves to participate in the voucher program. In other states offering vouchers, a mass exodus of children leaving public schools for private options has not materialized. Still, critics worry the Texas program will grow in size and cost. And if future cuts are needed, they worry political leaders will trim public school budgets first.

Lee, a former public school teacher and a 2024 Democratic candidate for the Texas House, acknowledges public education has a long way to go in helping Black students grow and thrive in the classroom.

Majority-Black schools are more than as majority-white schools to receive a D or F in Texas’ academic ratings. On state tests, Black students of all racial and ethnic groups. Aside from , Black students all other Texans on national exams, too. They graduate at the and drop out at .

But Lee contends that such inequities do not emerge by accident. It starts, she said, with inadequate resources.

“Our country has demonstrated that time and time again, we believe that the best education is an investment,” Lee said. “Private schools cost ridiculous amounts of money because parents believe that education is an investment.”

In 2023, Abbott said he would not sign sweeping education funding legislation if it excluded a voucher program. When , public schools lost out on billions that could have benefited students. The 2025 legislative session marked the that Texas lawmakers increased across-the-board money for public education.

Hundreds of districts approved budget deficits over that time. They increased class sizes, cut staffing and closed schools to save money. Last year’s nearly boost still fell billions short of catching them up with inflation. Meanwhile, Texas in average teacher salary and per-student spending, respectively, according to the National Education Association.

Public education advocates acknowledge that funding is not the only reason for — or answer to — Texas’ academic shortcomings, especially for Black students who have suffered through resistance to integration, the elimination of Black educators and unequal access to quality facilities and learning materials. And Lee thinks state laws clamping down on initiatives that promote diversity exacerbate negative academic outcomes.

But the advocates see funding as the foundation.

“Teachers are being asked to do so much with so little and then being mocked because they couldn’t quite get there,” Lee said.

Private schools typically face no requirements to accept students who live in their community or make learning arrangements for children with disabilities.

On the contrary, traditional public schools generally do not charge tuition or set admission requirements. They welcome different faiths and religions. They teach students who speak different languages. They accommodate students with disabilities. They offer free lunch, health care and laundry.

In other words, public schools are a public good worth preserving, said Michael McFarland, superintendent of the Crowley Independent School District, a majority-Black school system in North Texas.

“You’re still going to have the masses of children in the public institution,” McFarland said. “If the public institution is no longer serving the public good, then it creates a definite challenge for our country, a challenge for our city and our state.”

When states expand voucher access to include virtually any school-age child like Texas has, tend to benefit most. Lee fears the children of white and wealthy Texans will graduate from well-funded private schools while public school students will graduate from scraps.

“What’s going to happen is that we’re going to see a lot of Black and brown children who have schools that are broken down, very few resources, and basically feeding that pre-K to prison pipeline,” Lee said.

She refuses to allow her 9-year-old son, Brock, to grow up in a bubble where he interacts only with children of the same belief system and social class. If Brock is expected to thrive in the real world, Lee said, she wants him educated in a setting that closely resembles that world. Public schools work, she insists, because they teach children “how to be a human.”

“When we start siloing ourselves and saying, ‘I only want to be around white, straight Christians,’” Lee said, “then suddenly everyone else who doesn’t fit into that category, they’re not people, they’re problems, they’re things, they’re other.”

“They don’t love us back” 

Before Brown v. Board of Education, Black schools suffered from inadequate funding, outdated textbooks and crumbling buildings. Even so, highly credentialed led those institutions, and they nurtured Black children while holding them to high expectations. Students those heightened standards.

But in newly integrated schools after the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown, many white leaders deemed Black teachers and administrators unfit, demoting them, firing them or forcing their resignation. So while Black and white students began attending the same schools, Black educators became rare.

“You had a system where Blacks wanted kids to do well,” said Tatum, who argues that Texas’ current teachers and administrators resent Black students’ culture and achievements.

“You don’t protect what you do not respect,” Tatum added. “Since Brown, we’ve tried to love them, but they don’t love us back.”

A civil rights activist who founded and previously ran a charter school, Tatum is the one Black families call when public schools have wronged their children. One teacher multiple times during a class presentation, another into a child’s mouth. Black trauma pushed Tatum to a stark conclusion: Public schools have a culture problem.

The Texas Legislature could grant school districts access to all the money in the world, Tatum insists, but additional funding will not change school leaders who for sporting locs or who for celebrating hip-hop. In the Fort Worth Independent School District, a majority Hispanic and Black district in Tatum’s hometown, only one-third of students are testing on grade level.

“Let’s be real,” Tatum said. “These kids have been traumatized in these inner-city communities, in schools.”

In Tatum’s vision, Black churches will open small schools. Black teachers will lead instruction. Students will celebrate Juneteenth and learn to read. Administrators, by fostering a nurturing learning institution, will kill the school-to-prison pipeline.

At that point, voucher advocates say, Black communities will have used the environment of “education freedom” to their advantage, reclaiming their students and prioritizing their values.

“And that’s what we should do — first of all, because Black people have never been served well by the public education system,” said Denisha Allen, executive director of Black Minds Matter, a national organization advocating to improve academic outcomes for Black children.

Noliwe Rooks, an Africana studies professor at Brown University, wrote a book detailing how resistance to integration decimated Black school systems and subjected many Black students to discrimination and violence from their white peers.

Rooks agrees that many Black students today still lack the support they enjoyed in schools before the Brown decision.

However, she also noted that building Black schools without deep knowledge of how to manage finances, how to develop curricula and teach, and how to assist students with varying disabilities will create similar challenges that plague other schools. Black communities possessed that knowledge during segregation, Rooks said, which is why “losing the infrastructure for Black education matters.”

“Just having some Black people say, ‘I’m going to start a school for Black kids,’ has not worked,” Rooks said. Vouchers, she added, are also not the fix.

“It further exacerbates what’s broken,” Rooks said. “The problem is the education system — the idea of it as a public good, as something that’s supposed to be shared, that’s a national priority — that’s what’s broken.”

But Tatum has heard those arguments before. The grandfather of 15 does not get consumed with the “philosophical” — how he describes evidence that voucher programs tend to benefit wealthy white families, do not significantly improve learning and were once proposed by segregationist white lawmakers trying to undermine integration.

In his mind, nothing is worse than the trauma Black families have experienced in public schools or the fact that too many students in his hometown of Fort Worth cannot sufficiently read.

Tatum views the real problem as Texas forcing Black children to exist in a toxic educational environment. If Black families want to use state resources to exert more control over their kids’ education, he said, they deserve an opportunity to do so.

“You can get philosophical with me. You can get theological with me,” Tatum said. “But I’m trying to get practical with everyone.” 

“Same song, different verse”

Voucher programs, where almost all school-age children qualify, have only existed since 2022. In the , vouchers primarily served limited groups, such as low-income students and students with disabilities.

show that vouchers increase the likelihood that students graduate high school and go to college, while others conclude that they lead to small improvements in public schools. Meanwhile, some research also shows students for public schools at high rates. And while older studies demonstrate mixed effects on test scores, research in the past decade shows vouchers leading to .

Despite evidence that vouchers can harm test scores — the primary metric Texas leaders use to judge public schools — advocates are standing their ground. Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, said the governor believes the program will unlock new opportunities for students to grow.

“An overwhelming majority of Texans from all walks of life support expanding school choice to all Texas families — including minorities, Republicans, Democrats, independents, and people across rural Texas,” Mahaleris said. “Texas is on a pathway to becoming number one in education, and the passage of school choice is an unprecedented victory for Texas families, students, and the future of our great state.”

The will launch at the start of the 2026-27 school year. Almost 275,000 students applied — demand that exceeded available funding. In a state where about 53% of public school students are Hispanic and 13% are Black, nearly half of voucher applicants are white and 75% previously attended a private school or home school.

To divide the money, Texas will consider the applications of students with disabilities and low-income families first, though students are not fully approved until accepted to a private school. Families have more than 2,200 voucher-approved private schools to pick from, and those schools have the power to accept or deny students as they see fit.

Fears that the program will create two tiers of publicly funded education date back to the 1950s. Two years after the Brown decision, candidates in the Texas gubernatorial race of Black and white children learning together. In a Texas Democratic primary, several hundred thousand voters for school segregation. White Texans Black families, hanging dolls that resembled Black students being lynched.

that advocated for vouchers, a state legislative subcommittee wrote: “While showing great concern for the effect of segregation on the psyches of negro children, the Court neglected to display any concern whatsoever for the effect of integration on Southern white children and their parents.”

In 1957, lawmakers passed bills authorizing the attorney general to in desegregation lawsuits and allowing the governor to where federal troops showed up to enforce integration. A voucher bill, passed by the Texas House, would have to families who pulled children out of integrated schools. When the bill moved to the Senate, a small group prevented passage with the help of a .

One of the opposing senators was Henry B. Gonzalez, whose son Charlie Gonzalez, a former U.S. representative, sees vouchers as a choice to divest from a state education system that serves mostly students of color while propping up majority-white private schools.

“I always say it’s the same song, different verse,” Charlie Gonzalez said.

“To me, it really is about segregation. It really is resisting diversity,” he added. “Am I wrong? I don’t think so. I don’t think my dad was wrong in 1957. I don’t think I’m wrong today.”

“We can do both”

Lee and Tatum may never find out if the voucher program worsens or improves long-term academic outcomes for Black children because participating schools are not required to administer the same tests as public schools.

Voucher supporters argue instead that parent satisfaction will determine success.

In defending the program during the 2025 legislative session, Rep. Brad Buckley and former Sen. Brandon Creighton expressed confidence that vouchers would not harm public schools or promote discrimination.

“In harmony, we can lift up our public schools and our public school teachers like never before in historic ways, and we can provide education opportunities that fit the needs and are customized for our individual Texas students,” Creighton said during a Senate debate. “We can do both of those at the same time. Those aren’t warring provisions or concepts unless we allow stakeholders to manufacture a narrative that supports such a division, such chaos, such a lack of harmony.”

The two Republicans, who co-sponsored the voucher legislation, did not respond to requests for comment. The Texas comptroller’s office, which oversees the program, declined to comment.

On the fifth day of Black History Month last year, Sen. Borris Miles occupied the same floor where Henry B. Gonzalez and Abraham “Chick” Kazen Jr. filibustered seven decades before.

Miles, a Houston Democrat who is Black, reminded colleagues that Southern states proposed school vouchers to avoid integration. He reminded them that states defunded and closed Black schools. He warned that if it happened then, it will happen again.

“I’m sure that history is going to show that this body has created a separate but unequal education structural system and made it law,” Miles said, “made it law by sacrificing the masses for the very few.”

This first appeared on .

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Texas to extend the application deadline for private school vouchers until March 31 due to the state’s exclusion of Islamic schools from the program. 

The extension comes after four Muslim parents and three Islamic private schools earlier this month, arguing state leaders discriminated against their religion by excluding them from the program. 

from U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett prevents the state from considering which families will receive school voucher funding until after the new deadline. It also requires the state to update its voucher application website to reflect the new deadline and provide the schools that filed the lawsuit an opportunity to register for the program. It does not require the state to add them to the list of approved schools. 

The lawyers representing Islamic schools and families want the judge to extend the temporary order until the next hearing in late April, when they plan to argue for further relief. Bennett cannot extend the order until the current one expires. 

Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock — Texas’ chief financial officer who manages the voucher program — has prevented Islamic schools from participating in the program over claims that some are associated with foreign terrorist organizations. 

Hancock has said schools accredited by the company Cognia hosted events organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Gov. Greg Abbott recently designated a terrorist organization. CAIR has sued Abbott over the label, calling it defamatory and false. The U.S. State Department has not designated the organization a terrorist group.

Another Cognia school, , “may be owned or controlled” by a group linked to the Chinese communist government. Hancock did not cite evidence supporting his suspicion. 

Before the court order, the application window for Texas’ school voucher program was set to close at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday for families who want to use public funds to pay for private school or home-school during the 2026-27 academic year. 

The comptroller’s office confirmed Tuesday that it received the order and updated the website to reflect the new deadline. 

“This two-week extension will give families an additional opportunity to apply for the first year of school choice in Texas,” Hancock said in a statement. “We look forward to building on the record-setting demand for educational options that we have seen over the first six weeks.”

As of Tuesday, families had submitted applications for more than 229,000 students, more than what $1 billion in available state funding can pay for. More than have opted in to accept voucher students, according to the comptroller’s office. 

So far, at least 71% of Texas voucher applicants come from families whose children attended a private school or home-school during the 2024-25 academic year, according to data released earlier this month and confirmed Monday by the comptroller. 

The comptroller in late February denied a public records request from The Texas Tribune asking how many applicants currently attend private school or home-school, saying the office did not collect that data during the application period.

Most participating families with children in private schools will receive about $10,500 annually. Home-schoolers can receive up to $2,000 per year. Children with disabilities qualify for up to $30,000 — an amount based on what it would cost to educate that child in a public school.

The comptroller will use a lottery system to determine how the state will divide $1 billion among eligible students. Applicants will be considered in this order: 

• Students with disabilities in families with an annual income at or below 500% of the federal poverty level, which includes a four-person household earning less than roughly $165,000 a year. 
• Families at or below 200% of the poverty level, which includes a four-person household earning less than roughly $66,000. 
• Families between 200% and 500% of the poverty level. 
• Families at or above 500% of the poverty level; these families can receive up to $200 million of the program’s total budget. 

Families must still find private schools — which are generally not required to make special education accommodations — to accept their children. Parents do not have to have their children enrolled in a school until July 15. Private schools will then confirm enrollment with the state by July 31.

from the comptroller shows 35% of students come from households that make at or below $66,000 per year for a family of four. Thirty-seven percent make between $66,000 and $165,000 per year. Students in households making more than $165,000 annually comprise 28% of the application pool. 

The data also shows:

• Nearly 80% of applicants plan to attend a private school next year, while the remaining applicants say they plan to home-school.
• Most families applied to receive , though do not meet the eligibility criteria. 
• Most applicants reside in the Houston region, followed by the Richardson, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin regions. 

Before Tuesday’s court order, the comptroller’s office said it planned to release finalized data from the application pool later this week. 

In court filings, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office argued the comptroller has not “denied” any private schools from participating. Cognia-accredited schools require independent review, the state argued, due to the company “erroneously” listing schools as accredited without completing final steps. The Islamic schools suing the state, the lawyers noted, are accredited by Cognia. 

The comptroller’s office cannot reject schools, the attorneys said, until it decides their eligibility by July 15 — the deadline for parents to select a school. The state also argued “it would be fundamentally unfair” to extend the application deadline and “disrupt” the educational plans of hundreds of thousands of parents.

The families that sued argued the state’s decision to exclude Islamic schools forced parents to decide whether to apply for voucher benefits without their preferred schools listed, “abandon the religious educational choices they would otherwise make for their children, or to forgo applying for the benefits of the Program altogether.” 

“Without emergency relief, the Program’s initial implementation will proceed while Islamic schools remain excluded,” the lawsuit said. “Once the March 17, 2026 application deadline passes and participation decisions are made, the effects of Defendants’ unlawful exclusion will be fixed in the Program’s first year before this Court can determine the legality of Defendants’ actions.”

The voucher program’s first year has also been marked by on funding for children with disabilities. Some families did not know they needed a special education evaluation from a public school to qualify for additional voucher money. Obtaining legal documentation proving a child received the evaluation can take months, while the original voucher application window lasted only 41 calendar days. 

The comptroller recently of the voucher law, saying it believes families of students with disabilities can still apply for the funding boost next year. 

This first appeared on .

Texas families can begin applying for private school vouchers Wednesday, the most significant step yet in a state program set to launch next school year.

Texans have until March 17 to apply for the program, which allows families to receive taxpayer dollars to send children to private school or educate them at home.

If the number of applicants exceeds the $1 billion lawmakers set aside for the program, the state will prioritize students based on family income and whether they have a disability — though neither guarantee access.

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The program, overseen by the comptroller, , will launch at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year.

As of Wednesday night, more than 35,000 families submitted applications, according to the comptroller’s office.

The state can spend no more than $1 billion on the program during the current two-year budget cycle, which ends Aug. 31, 2027. It is unclear how much the program’s costs could rise — lawmakers will make that determination in future legislative sessions — but state budget experts the tab could escalate to roughly $4.8 billion by 2030.

Here’s what to know about the applications.

Most Texas families with school-age children can apply.

That includes students already attending private school or in home schooling. Families with children in a public school must plan to unenroll them if they want to participate. Parents must also submit proof of their child’s U.S. citizenship or evidence the child lawfully resides in the country.

If public demand for the program exceeds available funding, the state will prioritize the following applicants:

• Students with disabilities in families with an annual income at or below 500% of the federal poverty level, which includes a four-person household earning less than roughly $165,000 a year.
• Families at or below 200% of the poverty level, which includes any four-person household earning less than roughly $66,000.
• Families between 200% and 500% of the poverty level.
• Families at or above 500% of the poverty level; these families can receive up to $200 million of the program’s total budget.

The priority system does not guarantee access to the program, as students must still find a private school to accept them. No state or federal laws require private schools to make learning accommodations for students with disabilities.

In with large-scale voucher programs, participation has skewed toward more affluent and white families with children already in private school.

Families must have several documents prepared.

That Social Security numbers for the parent and child; an IRS Form 1040 for 2024 or 2025; and a Texas identification card or utility bill, lease agreement, mortgage statement or voter registration certificate if the state cannot verify a Texas ID number.

Families can also prove their child’s U.S. citizenship or lawful resident status by submitting documents like birth certificates or certificates of naturalization or citizenship.

For , children must be at least 3 years old and meet at least one of the state criteria for public pre-K. That criteria includes being eligible to participate in the free or reduced-price lunch program, being unable to speak or understand English, or being in foster care. Families with children in foster care must submit proof, such as a court order, adoption documents or a placement order.

Some families could receive up to $30,000 each year.

Most participating families with children in private schools will receive about $10,500 annually. Home-schoolers can receive up to $2,000 per year. Children with disabilities can receive up to $30,000 — an amount based on what it would cost to educate that child in a public school.

To apply for the voucher program, families can submit a Social Security determination letter or a physician’s note as proof their child has a disability.

But to qualify for the higher tier of funding, families must submit an Individualized Education Program, a legal document specifying that a child needs special education services. If families do not have that documentation, they can request it from their local public school. Public schools must complete those requests within 45 days of a parent consenting to the evaluation.

Families will receive the money through education savings accounts. Managed by the , the digital accounts will let families pay tuition and make education-related expenses, like private tutoring, transportation and school meals.

Students must also find private schools to accept them.

During the application process, families must signal their intent to enroll their child in a private school.

But they do not have to officially have their children enrolled until June 1, nearly three months after the application period closes. If parents cannot find a school by the initial deadline, the state will give them until July 15. Private schools will then confirm enrollment between June 15 and July 31.

Private schools, on a rolling basis, can apply to join the program if they have operated a campus for at least two years and received accreditation. They must also administer a nationally recognized exam of their choosing in grades 3-12. The schools are not required to administer the same standardized tests issued to public school kids each year — currently the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR.

More than have opted in thus far, with most located in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas.

Texas Attorney General stating his belief that the comptroller can block certain schools from participating in the program if they’re “illegally tied to terrorists or foreign adversaries.”

The opinion came after Acting Comptroller from Paxton, saying schools associated with the accreditation company Cognia had hosted events organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Gov. recently designated a terrorist organization.

CAIR has over the label, calling it defamatory and false. The U.S. State Department has the organization a terrorist group.

As by the Houston Chronicle, hundreds of Cognia schools have been shut out of the program, including those that primarily serve Muslim students, Christian students and children with disabilities. The comptroller’s office has said it is now inviting groups of Cognia schools that it considers in compliance with the law to participate.

Families will start receiving notifications in April.

Those notifications will let parents know they will receive funding — contingent upon enrolling their children in a private school by either the June 1 or July 15 deadline.

The first portion of state funding will become available in families’ education savings accounts between July 1 and mid-August.

This first appeared on .

As of this past April, nearly three-fourths of the more than 64,000 students eligible for the state’s universal education savings accounts were homeschooled or enrolled in a private school before they participated in the program, researchers from the Rand Corp. found.

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ESA students are also more likely to live in districts with higher median incomes, more white families and schools with better test scores.

“If the goal is to have tax dollars follow students, then a universal policy can achieve that,” said Susha Roy, lead author of the report. But if the goal is to reach the neediest students or those in failing schools, she added, “what we’re seeing in Arizona suggests that a universal policy is not the best way to expand access.”

To skeptics of ESAs, who see them as handouts to wealthier families, the findings provide further evidence that conservatives’ preferred school reform policy often leaves lower-income families behind. But supporters predict that use will spread over time to those with greater needs. In Arizona, for example, 57% of students who enrolled in the ESA program over the past year attended a public school just prior to switching — up from 21% in 2023, state data shows. In Indiana, over half of ESA students live in families earning $100,000 annually or less. Advocates working to promote school choice in lower-income communities say Rand’s findings just mean there’s more work to do.

“We’ve seen the national studies and we’re not dissuaded at all,” said Ryan Hanning, a fellow with the San Juan Diego Institute, a Phoenix-based organization that supports faith-based and nonprofit groups. “How do we make sure that ESA is fully adopted by marginalized communities, specifically Spanish-speaking and Black communities?”

Application windows too early

One consistent argument against ESAs is that the dollar amount doesn’t cover the costs at many private schools. of parents who didn’t use their ESA showed that nearly 20% said the funding wasn’t enough to afford tuition at their preferred school. Another 20% of parents were concerned that even if they could pay the tuition, they would struggle to afford additional fees, and almost 10% said lack of transportation would be a barrier.

Stephanie Parra, executive director of All in Education, an education advocacy group focused on Latino families, sees the same challenges in Arizona, which she called “the most choice-rich school environment in the country.”

“Eighty-five percent of our families are choosing their neighborhood public schools,” she said. “It is really a choice rooted in logistics and what is accessible to them.”

Proponents of private school choice say one solution is to build up the supply of schools, like those in the rapidly expanding microschool sector.

The San Juan Diego Institute promotes school choice to underserved communities, but has also provided start-up funds for new private schools where tuition costs no more than the amount of the ESA, generally in the $7,000 to $8,000 range. They include Hands2Teach in Peoria, which serves deaf and hearing students and teaches American Sign Language, and Vita High School, a Montessori-style program in Phoenix where students learn A.I. skills.

“Awareness is the biggest barrier. Many families don’t know ESAs exist, and early materials weren’t in Spanish, limiting accessibility,” said Andrew Lee, Vita’s founder and CEO. “Documentation requirements, such as proof of residency, can also create obstacles.”

The school provides scholarships to cover additional costs like transportation and school supplies.

The Indiana-based Drexel Fund has a similar mission and has helped launch new, mostly faith-based schools in multiple states that primarily serve students who qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch or have disabilities.

Microschools are more approachable to parents who have no experience with private schools, said Naomi DeVeaux, a partner with Drexel. Another way to open up ESAs to lower-income families, she said, is to allow parents to apply as late as a month before school starts, or to add late application windows.

“In some states, the window to apply for your voucher is too early. Families that are mobile or who just aren’t thinking ahead to the next school year will miss it,” she said. “That’s a big thing that states really could improve upon.”

The growth of super small schools has expanded access to private education, said Douglas Harris, an economics professor at Tulane University. He published research earlier this year showing that voucher-like programs have led to a 3% to 4% increase in private school enrollment. Most schools that receive ESA funds enroll about 30 students.

But he warned that more schools doesn’t always mean better student performance. In fact, with microschools, there’s no way to tell, according to another recent Rand study. Researchers concluded that there is insufficient data to determine how students who attend microschools compare academically to their peers in traditional public schools.

‘A case study’

Rand’s latest findings, said lead researcher Roy, have implications not just for states with existing ESA programs, but for those considering whether to opt in to a new federal tax credit scholarship program included in President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending package.

The Treasury Department and the IRS are now collecting public comments in advance of issuing regulations for the program next year. It’s unclear whether governors will have a say in how the programs operate or whom they serve.

“It’s our hope that we can use Arizona as a case study for other states that are now potentially considering ESA programs because of the federal policy,” she said.

The potential to open more educational options for underserved students has captured the support of some Democrats, a departure from how the party typically views vouchers and ESAs. Arne Duncan, education secretary during the Obama administration, and Democrats for Education Reform CEO Jorge Elorza urge states to participate.

“For both current and incoming governors, it’s a chance to show voters that they’re willing to do what it takes to deliver for students and families, no matter where the ideas originate,” they wrote in The Washington Post.

There are key differences between ESAs and the new federal program, which won’t start until 2027. ESAs, like most voucher programs, are state funded. Taxpayers will fund the federal Educational Choice for Children Act by donating up to $1,700 annually to a nonprofit scholarship-granting organization in their state. In exchange, they’ll get a dollar-for-dollar credit on their taxes.

The size of the scholarships will depend on how much those groups can raise. Families earning three times their area’s median gross income will be eligible for funding, meaning that those making as much as $500,000 in some parts of the country will be able to participate.

Critics argue that the tax credit is still expected to cost the government at least $10 billion annually and will increase over time. Additionally, if higher-income families end up benefitting more from the new program, that would “totally run contrary to the way that we have understood the federal role in education to be for decades,” said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, a center-left think tank.

He added that there’s no guarantee that private and religious schools would offer the same civil rights protections for LGBTQ students or those with disabilities as public schools.

“What are we losing when we move away from what has been our universal public education system?” he asked. “Who could really slip through the cracks?”

Talking about college

In a September paper, he pointed to North Carolina as an example of a state that is ensuring lower-income families get first crack at school choice dollars. The state gives its highest Opportunity Scholarship payment of $7,686 to the lowest-income families and gradually reduces the amount for families who earn more.

Until the state made its program universally available in 2023, “private school was never an option for us,” said Tabitha Lofton, whose two younger sons attend Amandla Academy, a microschool with locations in Greensboro and High Point.

She moved Jamaal and Jackson out of Dudley High School in the Guilford County district, where they often skipped class and struggled to keep up. As a welder who often travels for work, and had to stretch her income to pay the bills, Lofton felt she couldn’t devote enough time to her kids’ education.

All Jamaal wanted to do was play basketball — at churches, local gyms, wherever he could, Lofton said. It was that passion that caught the attention of a coach who worked for Amandla and recruited Jamaal to play. Eager to get her boys out of Dudley, she applied for the Opportunity Scholarship and soon realized that they were thriving in the smaller environment.

“I see A’s and B’s and C’s on their report cards, which is something I’ve never seen,” she said. “My children are talking about going to college. Before going to that school, that was not a conversation at all.”

Marcus Brandon, a former state legislator who pushed for the universal program, founded Amandla in 2022. As executive director of CarolinaCAN, part of the 50Can advocacy network, he’s well-versed in ESAs.

As in the Rand study, state data still shows that most students in North Carolina’s program were already enrolled in private schools before they received state funds, but that doesn’t deter him.

“You still have people who were making sacrifices,” Brandon said. Maybe they were working two jobs or put off buying a second car, he said. “Just because they were [paying tuition] doesn’t mean they were doing it comfortably.”

The promise of public education should not be about competition; rather it should be a commitment to serve every child regardless of family income, ability, ZIP code or race. A robust and fully resourced public school system not only supports all children in fulfilling their potential but also strengthens the foundation of our country by creating an educated populace prepared to participate in a multiracial democracy. 

The current federal administration’s regressive policies could plunge communities deeper into a competitive marketplace where some students win and the majority — particularly students of color and low-income students — lose. 

In Fall 2022, of students attending public schools were students of color. Additionally, during the 2021-2022 school year, attended schools where 75% or more students were of a single race or ethnicity. What this tells us is that our schools remain divided along racial, ethnic, and economic lines.

Private school choice programs by drawing public funds away from public  schools, whether they are structured as traditional vouchers, education savings accounts, or tax credits such as those Congress approved in H.R. 1. These programs increase segregation by concentrating students of color in underfunded public schools while benefiting wealthier, white families. 

from the Partnership for Equity & Education Rights (PEER) and 31 education advocacy groups across 19 states outlines the harms caused by these programs at the state level, including the impact on state budgets, fraud, lack of oversight, and the inequities they perpetuate. The report highlights that voucher programs are costly, ineffective, and do not end up serving the students they promise to serve. 

State voucher programs often blow past their state budgets and drain resources from public schools serving the vast majority of children. For example, in Arizona, universal voucher programs cost the state $517 million more than anticipated in its first year, exceeding the budget by more than 1,000%. Iowa faced a similar issue when their private school voucher program surpassed its anticipated cost by $46.9 million in its second year. 

These miscalculations can divert funds away from public schools and lead to challenging budgetary decisions, including laying off teachers, shutting down schools and cutting additional resources critical to support all students’ growth and development. 

Across the country, increased funding for public schools is the overwhelming choice of parents when considering what is best for their children and communities. A recent poll showed that both Republican and Democratic voters rather than for voucher programs. In 2024, rejected efforts to expand school choice programs. 

As of the 2021-2022 school year, of the country’s roughly 54.6 million K-12 students attended public schools. Reports of a mass exodus from public schools are an oversimplification at best, and misrepresentation at worst. What’s more, these reports are incomplete if they do not acknowledge historical patterns of discrimination and as drivers of that declining enrollment. Voucher programs are not a solution; in fact, they make existing problems worse.

What’s more,  the majority of voucher recipients were already attending private schools. For example, in Florida, 69% of new voucher recipients were already enrolled in private school, and only 13% left their public schools to enter the program. In Arkansas, only 5% of recipients in 2023-2024 transferred from public schools. In Wisconsin, 80% of voucher recipients had never attended public school.

So let’s be clear: These are not programs that are offering opportunities to historically marginalized and underserved students, but rather are tax breaks for families who already could afford to send their children to private schools.  

Voucher programs also raise significant civil rights concerns because private schools receiving the public money are that apply to public schools. That results in fewer protections against policies and practices that may exclude students on the basis of protected classes such as race, gender, ability, sexual orientation and religion. So in reality, the “choice” is not available for everyone. 

Illinois has taken steps to show us a better way: Lawmakers allowed the state’s tax credit program to expire, recognizing that diverting money to private schools undermined public schools. Yet, even Illinois, where lawmakers adopted a model designed to direct resources where they are needed most, is still far behind fully funding its . 

Across the country, families must call on state lawmakers to opt out of the nationwide voucher program, given the weak results in several states. Our priority must be protecting both state and federal education dollars and resisting privatization of our public schools.

The correlation between public education and democracy is inextricable. As a country we must all ask ourselves: Do we believe every child, not just our own, deserves a high-quality education regardless of Zip code, gender, race, and socioeconomic status? Do we want our youth to be prepared with critical thinking skills and historically accurate knowledge to fully participate in our communities and democratic institutions? 

If the answer is yes and we are willing to fight for a better future for our youth and our country, now is the time to resist regression in our local, state and federal education policies and to start demanding robust reinvestment into public education. The stakes are high, and our democracy depends on it. 

As is typical, adults demonstrate far more positive attitudes toward the local schools in their own backyards, with over 40% grading them highly. 

Even so, the results may help explain rising support among parents for private school choice. With 12 states now offering universal education savings accounts or tax credits that can be used for tuition or homeschooling, nearly 60% of parents say they would choose a private or religious school for their child if they were offered public funds. That’s up from 56% in 2020. 

The poll figures offer further evidence of a post-pandemic shift toward alternatives to traditional public schools. In Florida, a majority of K-12 students now use , from district magnet programs to homeschooling with state funds. 

“COVID was a key factor in making people more open to choice,” said Douglas Harris, an economics professor at Tulane University and the director of the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice. He noted that frequent disparagement from Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, have contributed to the public’s souring mood.

“It wasn’t until COVID that he started to really attack public schools, and saw the power of pulling that into his larger culture war,“ Harris said. “Is the message sinking in? No doubt. When politicians relentlessly bash any institution, support for that institution goes down.”

He cautioned against reading too much into the low percentage of Americans giving public schools high marks. Many of the 1,000 poll respondents may not have kids in school. While the average voter might be influenced by politics, public school parents answer questions based on their experiences, he said.

The poll from PDK International, a professional organization for educators, comes as the Trump administration pushes to dramatically reduce the federal government’s role in schools while also pressuring them to drop equity-focused programs. Responses show that Americans agree with the president in some areas, but reject other pieces of his agenda.

Closing the Education Department

Two-thirds of U.S. adults oppose eliminating the Education Department and say such a move would negatively affect students. Support for keeping the agency intact is highest among Democrats, but at least a third of Republicans agree it should stay open. Closing the department is far more popular among men (34% in favor) than women (9%). 

Marc Porter Magee, CEO of 50CAN, a national education advocacy group, said that Americans “just aren’t super inclined” to get rid of programs.

“There is a certain ‘more is better’ kind of a vibe,” he said. Even among parents who opt to put their children in private school, many recognize the federal government’s role in holding states accountable for serving students with the greatest needs. “Protecting kids with disabilities probably polls quite well.”

Along with downsizing the department, which has shrunk to roughly half the size it was when Trump took office, the administration has taken aggressive steps to get schools and universities to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Efforts to force schools to comply with anti-DEI orders are still tied up in court, but Trump recently claimed victory. 

“The beautiful thing is, as you know, we’ve gotten rid of the woke. Woke is gone,” last month. “I think pretty well buried. We’re gonna make sure it’s buried.” 

But that’s not necessarily what Americans want. Over 60% of PDK’s respondents say DEI is important, but there’s a partisan divide. Eighty-nine percent of Democrats support such initiatives, compared with 62% of independents and 22% of Republicans. 

Opponents of equity-related efforts, like , president of the conservative Defending Education group, say some schools have rebranded their DEI efforts to emphasize “belonging.” That term has nearly unanimous support from poll respondents. Ninety-eight percent consider initiatives that make students feel welcome at school to be important or very important — second only to keeping students and teachers safe, at 99%.

Over 90% of Americans say boosting teacher pay should be a high priority, and nearly two-thirds agreed that educators’ salaries are too low. It’s a more pressing issue for Democrats, like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who last month that would set annual teacher pay at a minimum of $60,000. Among Republicans, more than a third, 39%, agreed that teachers don’t earn enough.

Support for AI in schools drops

While it ranks lower than other topics, educating students about artificial intelligence and responsible social media use is a top concern for 84% of adults. The Education Department recently issued brief on AI integration, saying that grant funds can be used for tools that personalize learning, supplement tutoring and help students make post-secondary plans. 

Teachers and students are inundated almost daily with AI tools, like ChatGPT’s new “study mode,” meant to help students solve problems “step by step,” rather than just giving them the answer. Khan Academy offers an AI tutor, and research shows some AI tutoring offers promising results.

But Americans’ enthusiasm about AI’s potential in education has dropped since last year. Less than half of respondents support or strongly support teachers using AI to create lesson plans, down from 62% in 2024. Thirty-eight percent of adults think it’s fine for students to use AI to complete their homework, a drop from 43% last year.

Kyla Johnson-Trammell, who recently stepped down after eight years leading the Oakland Unified School District in California, said she’s not surprised about Americans’ deepening skepticism.

“At the end of the day, learning happens when kids have a relationship with the teacher and when they’re engaged in human connection,” she said. But she also sees value in using AI tools to solve specific dilemmas. A teacher might grade 30 essays, but can then use AI to “look for trends across all those papers, like ‘a majority of your students need help being able to write a clear thesis,’ ” she said. “Technology can do that.”

Most educators who try AI don’t stick with a tool more than seven days during a three-month period, according to an by Stanford University’s Generative AI Education Hub. The report, based on data from 9,000 teachers, showed that the 40% who become regular users lean toward teacher-focused chatbots rather than AI assistance for students.

The of AI for educational purposes comes as more states enact policies to ban cellphone use during the school day. have restrictions in place, and while it focuses on college freshman, a finds increases in academic performance once a ban is enforced.

The public largely supports such policies, the poll found. Forty percent agreed with a full-day ban, while 46% said students should only be able to use their phones during lunch and class breaks. 

Some experts are frustrated by the apparent contradiction. 

“This is what I find so completely surreal about the current moment,” Benjamin Riley, who writes about learning and generative AI, last month. “We can’t even say smartphones are being ‘memory holed’ because the bans in schools are happening quite literally at the same time as various ed-tech hucksters are falling all over themselves to push AI into the classroom. Wake up!”

Porter Magee said he worries about the “downstream” effects of devices on student habits, including trouble focusing and a continued . 

“It feels like we’re swimming against a tough tide,” he said.

Whether that ruling — from a Democratic judge in a county-level court — survives appeals to the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court will be the real test. 

If it stands, the ruling would cut off the $700 million Ohio now pays for 140,000 students to attend private, mostly religious schools, through its EdChoice voucher program. Voucher opponents, who say EdChoice takes away money from school districts, hope the money will now go to public instead of private schools. 

EdChoice makes up nearly 90% of Ohio’s voucher programs by giving students and schools nearly $6,200 a year each through eighth grade and $8,400 for high school.

In a late June ruling, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page found that EdChoice, once a small program limited to only low-income students or those at schools with low test scores, has expanded so much after Ohio opened it up to any student in 2023 that it violates parts of Ohio’s constitution calling for the state to fund “a system of common schools.” 

In the EdChoice case, filed by school districts against the state in 2022, Page agreed that the vouchers, which are used mostly at religious schools that can choose who they accept and what they teach, have created a second, parallel school system that’s selective, not common.

“In expanding the EdChoice program to its current form, the General Assembly has created a system of uncommon private schools by directly providing private schools with over $700 million in funding,” she wrote.

Page, though, recognized that EdChoice has grown so fast that ending it would cause “significant change to school funding in Ohio.” She held off ordering EdChoice to shut down until after appeals, even as she ruled against it.

Yitz Frank, a suburban Cleveland rabbi and president of School Choice Ohio, vowed to appeal Page’s ruling. He praised her, though, for delaying ending the vouchers just a few months before the start of a new school year. 

“You would essentially have well over 100,000 students lose their scholarships,” Frank said. “Tens of thousands of them would have no ability to even figure out how to possibly make those tuition payments. I’m sure there are some more middle class families that might be able to figure it out with great sacrifice, but it would be pretty devastating for the families.”

The ruling, if upheld, is high stakes for Ohio, but will have little impact on vouchers in other states because it centers on language in the state constitution and falls under state courts. 

It’s the latest, however, in a string of state court findings against state aid for private school tuition, including in and , where a bid to change the state constitution to allow state money to pay for private schools also failed.

The case is also significant because Ohio’s voucher program is among the largest in the country. Ohio spends the fourth-most of any state on private school tuition assistance, relative to total state spending on education, , the nonprofit school choice advocacy group.

Florida leads the way, with just over 10% of state spending on education going to private school tuition through vouchers, tax credits or related Education Savings Accounts. Arizona is close behind at 7% and Wisconsin at 5% before Ohio and Indiana follow at around 3.7%.

Voucher opponents, though, hope EdChoice clears appeals and ends soon. They disagreed that cutting off vouchers would be so harmful to families, noting that many sent their children to private schools without vouchers until the Republican majority in the legislature lifted income limits over the last few years.

“Taxpayers are being ripped off,” said Dan Heinz, a school board member of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district, the district historically most affected by EdChoice. “Wealthy families that have always used private schools and afforded private schools are now having that tuition subsidized by much poorer families.”

Smaller Ohio voucher programs, including two for students with disabilities and one only for Cleveland residents, are not part of the case. The Cleveland program is well-known as the center of the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case Zelman v. Simmons-Harris that allowed vouchers to be used for students to attend religious schools.

Page also ruled that Ohio’s requirement for “common schools” means that public schools, the “common” ones, should be fully funded. She agreed with districts that the state legislature has not met that mandate, particularly by under-funding the planned phase-in of the “Fair School Funding” formula it passed in 2021.

“The state provides hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to private schools through EdChoice while at the same time Plaintiffs are unable to educate their students because the General Assembly decided not to fully fund public schools,” Page wrote.

Voucher advocates promise to appeal, saying they are not surprised by this ruling by a Democratic judge in one one the most Democratic-leaning counties in Ohio, even as the state has trended strongly Republican in recent years. 

Advocates including Keith Neely, a lawyer for the Virginia-based Institute for Justice who helped defend EdChoice on behalf of families using the vouchers, said he expects to easily win at the Supreme Court for a few reasons, including that Ohio has no ban on funding additional schools if the state also pays for a “system of common schools.”

“There’s no provision
 that prohibits the general assembly from enacting scholarships, or even providing for this other system of uncommon schools,” he said. “I think plaintiffs are wrong to try and argue that there is a restriction in Ohio’s constitution that prevents the state from providing for educational alternatives like Ed choice.”

Voucher opponents, who say they now have half of Ohio’s 611 school districts, including large ones, as plaintiffs in the case, praised the ruling and hope that public pressure will overcome the political leaning of the state Supreme Court. Six of the seven members, all of whom face election, are Republican.

“Put on the political lens for these people (justices) when they’re looking at 75% of the state’s voters living in districts that have signed up for the lawsuit,” said Heinz. ”That’s not a very promising outlook for their political futures.”

It’s a victory for Granite State families and a reminder that when policymakers listen to parents, students win. 

The journey to universal eligibility has been years-long and, at times, winding. Now, New Hampshire joins a growing wave of states — totaling more than a dozen — that have made their scholarship account or voucher programs universally available. In doing so, every child in New Hampshire will now have access to a personalized learning path that works for them. It is an affirmation that educational opportunity shouldn’t depend on where a family lives or how much money they make. 

Education Freedom Accounts empower parents to direct state education funds toward a variety of approved services, including private school tuition, tutoring, therapies, online learning and curriculum materials. This flexibility is especially critical for students who need something other than a one-size-fits-all school assignment, whether they’re struggling academically, seeking more rigorous coursework, dealing with bullying or pursuing specialized learning interests. 

Since launching the program in 2021, New Hampshire has witnessed the power of Education Freedom Accounts in action. But under previous eligibility limits, fewer than half of students could access the program. Many families who didn’t qualify because of income thresholds were still unable to afford private school or enrichment services, leaving them without meaningful options. 

Now, that barrier is gone. Every New Hampshire parent can consider the full range of learning environments and services to meet their child’s needs, not just the one assigned based on where they can afford to live.

That expansion reflects a larger national trend. Over the past few years, a sea change has taken place across the country as parents seek and gain more control over their children’s education. Since 2021, 17 states have enacted universal education choice. From Arkansas to Iowa to Texas, governors and legislators have responded to the call for change with sweeping reforms that prioritize students over systems. 

Why is this happening? Because parents know what’s best for their children. They have seen the way their states’  education methods and priorities fall short of their expectations or leave their kids behind. Choice gives families agency. It gives them hope. And it often provides students with the very thing they need to succeed: the right environment at the right time with the right support. 

The data back this up. School choice programs enjoy among parents and the public because it has . shows that choice can lead to stronger academic outcomes, higher graduation and and even long-term benefits like reduced crime and improved civic engagement.

Despite , universal choice doesn’t mean a mass exodus from public schools. In fact, the majority of families still choose their neighborhood public school when given the option. But having the power to choose, even if they never use it, puts parents in the driver’s seat. It ensures schools are responsive to families and that no student is trapped in a system that isn’t working. 

At ExcelinEd in Action, we believe that strong policy changes lives. And New Hampshire just changed thousands of them for the better. This expansion is more than policy — it’s possibility. 

New Hampshire policymakers have not only honored the promise of public education, they’ve expanded it. They’ve sent a clear message that students come first, and that New Hampshire will continue to create innovative, student-centered education policy. 

I hope other states take notice. Because every child, no matter where they live, deserves the chance to succeed. 

I’ve always favored studies that measure attainment rather than achievement. College enrollment and completion offer a clearer window into long-term success than small bumps in test scores. While this study isn’t a randomized controlled trial, it still adds modest weight to the case that expanding educational options can improve outcomes.

Still, a word of caution: The case for school choice should never rest primarily on academic evidence.

I don’t expect this to be a popular stance among education reformers broadly or even among school choice advocates who’ve spent years to “prove” that school choice “works.” 

It wasn’t popular in 2022 either, when Jay Greene and I it was “Time for the School Choice Movement to Embrace the Culture War.” That paper drew sharp pushback from colleagues, many of whom were openly hostile and visibly annoyed by the shift in strategy. We had challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that avoiding cultural conflict — or parroting the language of social justice — was the safest path to political support.

But reality has proven otherwise. Cultural arguments, centered on parents choosing schools that align with their values, have powered a wave of school choice expansion across the country. Far from alienating voters, this approach has energized them.

Now, with dozens of new programs launching or growing, there will be more research. That’s a good thing. But advocates must resist the urge to treat every study as a referendum on the entire movement. Educational freedom shouldn’t be reduced to a debate over effect sizes, methodological choices and findings in technical journals.

Research can inform the conversation, but it must not define it. We shouldn’t bow at the altar of capital-E Evidence — especially when it obscures the moral clarity at the heart of the school choice movement.

The best argument for educational freedom has never been statistical. It’s moral. It’s about affirming the right of families to raise their children according to their own beliefs. A successful education system isn’t just one that boosts college attendance; it’s one that respects parental authority.

Good research has its place. Studies like those from the Urban Institute can inform policy and spotlight promising outcomes. But for school choice advocates, such evidence should remain secondary, even when the findings are favorable. For most parents, the case for school choice isn’t grounded in p-values.

Too often, advocates fall into the trap of justifying every policy through academic evidence, obscuring the stronger argument: No child should be forced into a school that undermines their family’s values.

Some may call this moving the goalposts. That after years of highlighting low test scores in traditional public schools, we’re now backing away from data. I reject that framing. We’re not bound to defend strategic choices made decades ago. Plus, parents simply aren’t chasing incremental gains on standardized assessments; they care more about whether schools are helping raise the kind of people they want their children to become.

And that brings us to a deeper issue: Why should all school sectors be judged by the same metric in the first place? I can already hear the charges of hypocrisy: You slam traditional public schools for low test scores but won’t hold choice-based schools to the same standard. But that criticism misunderstands the premise. In a system where families are empowered to choose schools aligned with their own priorities, the need for any single, standardized measure of quality becomes far less salient.

In the absence of universal educational freedom, standardized test scores and attainment metrics serve as rough proxies for school quality. But when families are truly free to choose, they make decisions based on a much broader range of priorities. In that context, relying on any outcome as the sole measure of effectiveness feels increasingly out of step with how parents actually evaluate schools.

Outcomes like character formation, civic knowledge and psychological resilience are harder to measure than college enrollment — but they matter deeply to parents. One of the most promising ways to help families find schools that support the outcomes they value most is through universal Education Savings Accounts: generously funded and available to all, regardless of student background, family income, or prior public school enrollment.

When a school contradicts a family’s values, no test score can justify it. That’s why school choice must be grounded in the principle of parental authority, not in academic metrics or technocratic validation. Research can support this case, but it can’t substitute for it. The most fundamental outcome remains whether parents are free to choose schools that reflect their values — or trapped in ones that don’t.

Within the first few weeks of the 2025 legislative session, the that would provide education savings accounts (ESAs) worth up to $11,500 to families for each of their children’s schooling expenses, including private tuition. The more moderate House of Representatives, where prior efforts to establish voucher-style programs have run aground, appears to be headed in a similar direction, with co-sponsoring similar legislation. 

If successful, the state GOP will have accomplished one of its most ambitious and long-held goals: the establishment of a school choice system that dramatically expands educational options, transforming the K–12 ecosystem of America’s second-largest state and putting it once again at the forefront of conservative policy. To reach this point, Gov. Greg Abbott has had to put down significant resistance within his own party, expending both political and financial capital to defeat Republicans who stood in his way. 

Yet, while majorities in both chambers are converging on the same idea, enough differences separate their approaches to cloud the prospects of a final deal. The underlying ambiguity, as well as the symbolic importance of Texas as the largest Republican-controlled state, have been highlighted in recent weeks by household names like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz prodding officeholders to take action. With the full House opening the debate on their bill on Tuesday, the strength of the choice coalition will be put to a test that most believe they will ultimately pass.

Katherine Munal, a former legislative staffer for Texas Republicans who now serves as the policy director of the advocacy group , said she sees the enactment of ESAs as a “done deal” that will eventually emerge from negotiations between the House and Senate. Just as inevitably, she predicted, the initial $1 billion investment in the policy would “continue to grow.”

“I see this as a foothold for how Texas will look at education in the future,” Munal said. “This education savings account program will be a pillar of education conversations forever.”

That view was echoed by Notre Dame sociologist Mark Berends, who has studied the implementation of various forms of school choice, including ESAs and charter schools. Commenting on the design of both Texas proposals — which make the accounts universally available, rather than reserving them only for low-income families or those grappling with severe learning challenges — he said they were meant to attract a durable political constituency.

“If you have means-tested voucher or scholarship programs, they remain fragile,” Berends said. “Whereas proponents look at universal ESAs almost like Social Security: Once it gets passed, it will not be overturned.”

But a victory in the conservative mecca would validate Republicans’ political strategy as much as the policy itself. Over the past half-decade, a sequence of red-state governors have worked to expand private school choice; a muscular donor group, led by top GOP fundraisers like former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and TikTok investor Jeff Yass, has pursued the same ends, often by targeting uncooperative Republican lawmakers with primary challengers. They have succeeded in rewriting the conservative education agenda, with erstwhile priorities like charter schools and school accountability virtually disappearing from view.

The difficulty of bringing the same playbook in Texas has “felt like a black eye” to the national party, said Joshua Blank, research director of , a polling and public affairs organization based at the University of Texas. But he added that a breakthrough there would be viewed as a proof of concept, particularly as the program grows.

“When you look at the other states that have big aspirations around school choice, none of them will be doing it on the scale of Texas, and none will spend the money that Texas will to create a private market in education,” Blank said. “There is a sense that if you can make it work in Texas, it should be workable anywhere.”

‘Primarying out legislators’

Significant effort, and no shortage of funds, have been dedicated toward making things work in Texas.

The latest push in Austin was set in motion last spring, when Abbott succeeded in unseating 13 recalcitrant ESA foes in Republican primaries. Frustrated by a string of legislative failures in 2023 — including a hastily-convened special session and unheeded threats to veto bills that didn’t include voucher proposals — the three-term governor campaigned hard against a mostly rural contingent of Republican House members who refused to take up the cause. 

Their resistance was motivated by concern over the financial disruptions that ESAs would likely inflict on small communities, where school districts are traditionally the largest employer and center of civic life. Partnering with virtually all Democratic members, the group helped torpedo school choice bills going back to the tenure of Abbott’s predecessor as governor. 

To dislodge them, Abbott tapped the resources of both and national Republican mega-donors. Yass, one of the richest school choice advocates in the country, between 2023 and 2024, while DeVos another $1 million. By the middle of last year, Abbott — who isn’t up for reelection until 2026 — had over $50 million in his campaign account. 

Josh Cowen, a professor of education at Michigan State University and opponent of school vouchers, said the spending binge was simply an expansion of the choice movement’s strategy in states like Iowa and Arkansas. There, dozens of Republican voucher opponents within a campaign cycle or two. But in Texas, home to over 1,000 school districts and multiple large media markets, the cost and complexity of driving out dissidents took longer.

“Their entire strategy is based upon primarying out legislators,” said Cowen, who recently published on the spread of ESAs last year. “So it makes complete sense — setting aside stuff like local culture, politics, the state constitution — that the biggest state, and the most expensive to play in, will be the last one to fall.”

Somewhat paradoxically, the campaign didn’t predominantly hinge on the issue of school choice. A conducted before the primary elections showed that most listed immigration, the economy, and abortion as more salient than the fate of education, and even those who cited schools were unlikely to specifically mention choice. 

Even now, with legislators ready to craft a final law creating an ESA system, the national GOP is still applying pressure. President Trump and advisor Elon Musk have to insist that lawmakers finish the job. Blank noted that grassroots resistance to the policy still runs high even following last year’s ousters, with the author of the House bill at an East Texas PTA meeting in late February.

“The only way to change that is to bring in Donald Trump, bring in Elon Musk, and have Ted Cruz hit this issue and again,” he said. “It’s a reflection that, although the debate is nearly won, it still needs more thumbs on the scale.”

‘The stakes couldn’t be higher’

State Rep. James Talarico agreed that the extent of pressure from both campaign funders and the Oval Office indicated that the ESA legislation’s passage is not assured.

A Democrat from an Austin-based district, he has become one of the state’s loudest voices against private school choice, labeling the proposals a “voucher scam” and with Abbott. In an interview, he described the legislation’s likelihood of passage as a 50-50 proposition, calling his constituents’ opposition “relentless” and noting that even a few defections could cause negotiations with the Senate to break down. 

“The stakes couldn’t be higher, and I think that’s the reason why some of the wealthiest donors in the country have put so much money behind this,” he said.

Still, the widespread perception is that Abbott’s brass ring now lies within his grasp. While the House a K–12 funding increase before turning to the matter of choice — widely considered a sweetener to bring along those still anxious about its impact on district finances — it has also seen 75 co-sponsors sign on to the ESA legislation out of 150 total members.

The two chambers in their visions for the policy. The Senate legislation offers a set figure of $10,000 for each student, with an additional $1,500 provided for those with disabilities, but House Republicans propose to fund 85 percent of state and local spending per pupil (roughly $10,900) and as much as $30,000 for children with disabilities. While making all 6.4 million Texas students eligible to receive ESAs, both bills would also target various student groups — including those from relatively lower-earning families, and those who previously attended district public schools — at different levels of priority.

Given the prevailing likelihood that some compromise measure prevails, EdChoice’s Munal foresees a radical shift in how the state provides education, with the likely emergence of new vendors to offer increasingly specialized services to families seeking help with math learning, treatment of dyslexia, or English as a second language.

“We are really excited about opening that education market to allow for better outcomes and better products,” she said. “We’ll have a bigger market, ready to compete and create better products for kids.”

That market-inflected language contrasts somewhat with the way that education reform has historically been pursued in Texas. Wealthy philanthropists and donors tried to set up pilot voucher systems , often winning the support of Republican officials along the way. But those ventures were pursued alongside simultaneous moves to drive public school improvement, most famously by Gov. George W. Bush, whose was later replicated in the No Child Left Behind Act. 

Neither the House or Senate legislation would require schools serving ESA recipients to participate in Texas’s mandated STAAR exams, and Munal separately lamented the “years of debate wasted on testing and accountability.” Yet national assessment data indicate that the state ranks among the best in the nation in both math and reading, particularly when adjusting for student demographics.

Cowen said he expected conservatives to turn their eyes to Washington in the coming months, arguing that a triumph in Texas would represent a “high-water mark” for the red-state strategy of the last half-decade. Some remaining Republican legislatures are their own such bills, but they would add a relatively small number of new participating families. By comparison, a , perhaps passed through Congress in , would open a totally new chapter in the history of school choice.

“They’re realizing that they’re running out of real estate, and they need to find a way to keep growing,” he said. “Texas is kind of it. Once the state is done, whichever way it goes, they don’t have many places left to push.”

Last September, the CEO of a company handling online payments for West Virginia’s private school choice program promised not to seek additional business until he fixed technical glitches that led to a huge backlog of orders.

“Student First Technologies has assured us that they will not pursue contracts with additional states until the issues and challenges we’re experiencing here in West Virginia are resolved. That’s a commitment,” said former Treasurer Riley Moore. His comments came during a board meeting devoted to the state’s Hope Scholarship, an education savings account program that pays for private school tuition and homeschooling.

Well into the current school year, over 3,000 orders were unfulfilled, forcing parents to pay out of pocket for books, tech equipment and services that the state promised to provide. Some families couldn’t even download Theodore, the company’s payment platform. 

Four months later, some parents using the Hope Scholarship say not much has changed. They still complain of poor customer service and purchases that are approved for some families, but not others.

“From a parent perspective, performance has not improved significantly,” said Katie Switzer, a mother of five who shared concerns with the state last summer. 

In January, others posted complaints on Google’s webstore, where parents can access the payment platform. “Please go back to last year’s system. I still cannot access 
 TheoPay,” one parent wrote. Another said, “I’ve scanned the cart at least 100 times and the same sentence pops up every time, ‘Something unexpected happened, please resubmit your cart.’ ”

Despite its promise to West Virginia, Âé¶čŸ«Æ· has learned that the Indiana-based company has been pushing to expand. In late fall, Student First submitted an unsuccessful proposal to handle expenditures for .

Now the company could be in the running to manage a statewide ESA program in Tennessee, a prize that would mark a turnaround for a newer player in what has become a . Student First already manages for about 2,000 students in the Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga areas. passed last month would take the program statewide, where it would serve roughly 20,000 students. 

The potential for growth, however, raises questions over whether Student First, which lost a $15 million contract to run Arkansas’ ESA program because it failed to deliver on its promises, can meet the demand. 

‘Evolving very quickly’

The Tennessee governor’s office won’t say for sure whether it plans to hold a competitive bidding process. Elizabeth Lane Johnson, the governor’s press secretary, told Âé¶čŸ«Æ· Tuesday that the state Board of Education will first have to write rules for the expanded program. 

She added that officials have “met with a number of experienced vendors to learn how other states have implemented universal school choice programs successfully.” 

Last November, Lee met with , a leader in the industry, at a conference in Oklahoma City, The Tennessean reported. But Mark Duran, Student First’s CEO, said the situation in Tennessee is “still unfolding” and that he hopes to continue serving the state. 

Some observers say it would be unusual for the education department not to open the process up to other bids.

“The technology is evolving very quickly,” said Jim Blew, a former U.S. Department of Education official and ESA advocate who later advised ClassWallet. “I would be really surprised if they don’t open it up to a new competition. They’re scaling up; they’re going universal.”

If get their way, red states won’t be the only ones with universal voucher programs. They’ve reintroduced a bill in Congress to create a nationwide tax credit scholarship program. And while details have yet to emerge, President Donald Trump directed the Department of Education to use grant funds to prioritize private school choice.

“We have millions of students right now who live under some sort of school choice program,” KellyAnne Conway, a counselor to the president in his first term, said . “We know it’s effective.” 

The West Virginia treasurer’s office did not answer questions about whether Student First has caught up with its backlog of orders. But Duran told Âé¶čŸ«Æ· “a lot has changed” since last fall. 

That’s when Arkansas fined Student First over $500,000 because of delays in delivering a “fully operational” platform. In an canceling the contract, Education Secretary Jacob Oliva told Duran that processing delays meant that students, families and vendors were receiving “service below the standard to which they were entitled.” At the same time, homeschooling parents in West Virginia couldn’t order curriculum, equipment and school supplies for their kids because of problems with the company’s payment system. 

A hold-up in funding can be a major setback for small businesses trying to establish themselves in the market. 

When Student First still operated in Arkansas, Lauren McDaniel-Carter waited seven weeks after the school year started before her microschool ACRES received payments totaling about $23,000. All but three of the 26 students she serves at her home in northeast Arkansas participated in the state’s Education Freedom Account program. She had to take out a $50,000 loan to run the school and pay her small staff. 

‘Larger and more numerous’

The state replaced Student First with , which held the contract during the program’s first year.

Duran, Student First’s CEO, did not respond to specific questions about the status of orders in West Virginia, but said his team seeks to “constantly improve our operations.” 

“Momentum remains strong,” he said. “We’ve grown and are ready for even more growth.” 

The company now has over 35 staff members and recently hired Andrew Nelms, formerly with school choice advocacy group Yes. Every Kid, as its new head of government affairs. Other include a vice president of operations, a software engineer and a “customer success” director. 

The additional personnel, Duran said, will allow the company to “support larger and more numerous programs across the country.” 

An entrepreneur, Duran grew up in northern Michigan where his mother taught him while building a large network of homeschooling families. The flexibility, he said, allowed him to spend time with his dad, a homebuilder, and sparked his business career.

He got his start in the private school choice sector in Indiana when he teamed up with a friend who built a software platform for managing donations to tax credit scholarship programs. 

Indiana “education freedom policy folks” encouraged them to break into the ESA market, he said. He was further inspired after attending a 2020 ExcelinEd conference in Florida, where he mingled with voucher advocates who saw the pandemic’s disruption as an opportunity to expand private school choice. 

“We saw a bigger picture,” he said. Among lawmakers there was a “big push to unlock more money 
 to send to families through these different programs.” 

Two significant events occurred on the national education landscape last week: the highly anticipated and widely commented-upon release of (NAEP) and the by President Donald Trump.

The NAEP results are about as bad as they were expected to be. Across the nation, on average, reading scores in fourth and eighth grade were down and math scores were stagnant. Students who were the furthest behind showed the sharpest declines relative to their higher-achieving peers, while their more advantaged peers showed slight upticks.

It’s hard to say whether Trump’s executive orders on were timed to coincide with the NAEP release or if the White House has so many edicts they’re trying to get out the door that it was a coincidence. Either way, at least one advocate is trying to use the NAEP scores as a . Whether you’re a voucher proponent or a skeptic, you have to admit there are some flaws in this logic. Here are three key ones:

Private school choice won’t improve state NAEP scores. There are no state-level NAEP results for private schools. NAEP does assess private schools, but that data is . One could argue that the competition exerted by private schools against public schools could improve outcomes in the latter, but the . Big private school choice states like Arizona and Florida actually saw some of the most precipitous drops in NAEP fourth grade reading as compared with 2022, while states with newer choice programs such as Indiana and, in particular, Louisiana showed gains. Both those states also, though, have embarked on other reform efforts with regard to public schools.

With the continued expansion of choice programs and states like Texas on the verge, maybe this is a good time for a discussion of whether NAEP should expand to include state-level private school results. You would think anyone using the NAEP results as a rationale for expanded private school choice would be on board with that. But I’m not so sure. Which brings me to point No. 2.

School choice advocates are split on whether students attending publicly subsidized private schools should take any tests at all. Some contend that choice is the ultimate type of accountability and that other forms, , are unnecessary. One argument, for example, is that the public school system is a monopoly and thus needs to be regulated while, in contrast, open-market education systems are more dynamic and need a lighter touch.

Certainly test scores and other outcome data are not the only considerations parents could or should make in choosing a school for their child. But wouldn’t it be helpful for families to have achievement data in making this decision? , 86% of parents supported requiring schools to provide data on student achievement, discipline and enrollment so families and policymakers can make informed decisions. Shouldn’t voters and taxpayers also have some of this same information in determining the return on investment that taxpayers are getting from private school operators? Even red states like Indiana and Louisiana (both of which — coincidentally? — are among the few showing NAEP gains) have , as has the solidly blue District of Columbia. Which brings us to point 3.

If you’re looking for test score gains, private school choice should probably not be at the top of your list of options. shows that, on standardized assessments, private school students, including those receiving vouchers, fare no better — and in some instances fare worse — than their peers in public schools. Some studies do show that expanded private school choice improves performance for public school students, presumably as a result of competition, but the effect is said to be very modest. Also, vouchers may increase the likelihood that students will enroll in and complete college.

But if it’s test scores you’re worried about, be it NAEP or state tests or school-chosen assessments, vouchers would not seem to be your best first choice for improvement. Fortunately, there is a wide body of evidence (check out, for example, the or the ) on what does work to improve student achievement, especially in the public schools where 90% of students continue to be enrolled. And many of those policies and practices — like high-impact tutoring, personalized instruction, expanded learning time, improved school leadership and data-driven decisionmaking — are exactly what parents are asking for and, candidly, still aren’t getting in high enough doses from the public education system.

In the coming months, with any luck and a good deal of effort, the NAEP results will propel policymakers to dramatically change that state of affairs.

President Donald Trump’s plan for schools nationwide is a familiar one to observers of Indiana education policy.

Since 2021, the state has taken steps each legislative session to limit content in schools and minors’ access to gender-affirming care and social transition procedures, while expanding access to vouchers and school choice. That push continues in the 2025 session, with dozens of bills filed that expand on similar issues.

Advocates for these laws say they’re necessary to protect parents’ rights to choose how to raise their children — rights that they say need to be on par with constitutional rights, and which they hope to see reflected in national legislation.

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“When parents drop their children off at school, they want to know what’s going on,” said Matt Sharp, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group.

But the laws’ critics say they haven’t led to mass bans of content or revelations of indoctrination in schools because schools weren’t teaching objectionable content to begin with. Instead, they say the primary effect has been increased anxiety among educators and already vulnerable students.

Jessica Heiser, an attorney with Imprint Legal group, which helps districts understand educational civil rights laws, said that these curriculum laws often oversimplify the difficulty of running a classroom, which can cause problems for the districts left to implement them.

“They really don’t want laws around what they’re allowed to teach and not teach,” Heiser said of school administrators, regardless of their politics. “When you get into the nitty grittiness of you shall teach this, or you shall not teach that 
 legislators are out of their depth.”

To apply some of these laws on a national scale might require the kind of heavy-handed federal enforcement Trump — who — professes to dislike, or else leave schools to police themselves with inconsistent results. Still, and his suggest his desire to fight particular cultural battles through American schools has not subsided.

The available evidence doesn’t clearly show that the statutes targeting curriculum, library books, and transgender students have accomplished their stated goals. But there’s reason to believe they’re increasing families’ interest in vouchers.

Some observers say it’s no coincidence that a major consequence of the new laws about public schools has been a surge in private school enrollment and voucher use. Discussions this year about making Indiana’s voucher program universal also often center around parents’ rights to choose a school for their children.

Fights over social issues can lead to citizens losing “trust and confidence in public schools,” Heiser said.

“You end up creating an atmosphere where public schools are so unpredictable and public schools are such a place of confusion and such a place of dissatisfaction, that you open up a conversation better for vouchers and for privatization,” Heiser said.

But some Indiana lawmakers have characterized concerns about how such laws affect the state’s broader reputation as overblown, as evidenced by what they say is Indiana’s ongoing economic and growth.

In remarks late last year, Republican House Speaker Todd Huston chided doomsayers who had told him that “if we pass this bill, no one will ever come to Indiana again.”

“All that extreme hyperbole didn’t age well,” Huston said.

Classroom content bans seem slow to catch on

Lawmakers have made several attempts over the years to restrict the teaching of certain kinds of content in Indiana classrooms. It’s part of a nationwide push to ban “divisive concepts” related to race, racism, gender, and sexuality.

There are . One bill would prohibit instruction on American history from promoting the idea that the national identity or culture has been established by racial identity or racial discrimination, gender identity or gender discrimination, victimization, class struggle, a hierarchy of privileges, or systemic exclusion. Others would require schools and state agencies to prohibit certain statements in training and curriculum related to .

But the push began in Indiana in 2022, when lawmakers considered a wide-ranging bill that sought to restrict how teachers teach about race and racism. It in the state Senate following an outcry from a broad coalition of educators, parents, clergy, and others.

The following year, lawmakers scaled back their ambitions and passed narrower restrictions on content in schools. One new law required schools to adopt procedures to that contain material deemed harmful to minors. Another banned teaching human sexuality to students in preschool through third grade.

Since then, there have been instances of complaints at local school board meetings about books and lessons in schools. One example is the community uproar last year over a in an elementary school classroom in East Noble Schools.

But there have not been widespread reports of public backlash to classroom material leading to curriculum changes. And Chalkbeat and other outlets’ reporting have found few formal complaints about books, and even less action taken to move or remove them.

Supporters of the laws like the Alliance for Defending Freedom say this simply means the legislation is working, and schools have taken care to purge their curriculum of objectionable material.

Other observers say the effect has been a chilling one. have told Chalkbeat they or their colleagues avoid topics related to politics due to fears about how some parents might react.

Even relatively straightforward events in national politics that students might encounter independently can be affected by this environment. Kevin Melrose, a social studies teacher in Washington Township schools, said he in order not to be partisan, per district policy, even as the class held mock debates for class president on the same day of the 2024 vice presidential debates.

One thing that makes Indiana unique is Eyes on Education, said Christopher Lubienski of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University. That’s alast year by Attorney General Todd Rokita for people to file complaints about how schools teach race, gender, and political ideology. (Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin launched a similar tip line, but it has since shut down.)

If the Trump administration launched such a tip line launched nationally, it would require large-scale monitoring and investigation, which might conflict with Trump’s plans to run a smaller, leaner federal government.

So far, Rokita has posted complaints from just 18 out of the state’s 300 school districts and more than 150 charter schools, as well as from two universities. The substance of these complaints ranges from the material available in a school library catalog, to an invitation for Black students to meet with a college representative.

And records show that even a politically charged event like the 2024 presidential election didn’t lead to complaints about inappropriate or politically biased instruction. A Chalkbeat request for material submitted to “Eyes on Education” that was related to the election yielded two complaints that were apparently jokes.

Student pronoun law yields murky data, inconsistent approaches

Indiana has passed several laws that affect transgender students, including a prohibition on

transgender girls playing on girls’ sports teams at the K-12 level.

When the law was passed in 2022, the Indiana High School Sports Association, which had procedures in place for transgender athletes’ participation, had gone through the outlined process to play on a girls’ team in recent years. The association did not return a request for comment on whether there have been any additional instances since the law passed.

Data shows that trans students are a tiny fraction of school enrollment. Researchers estimate that . In addition, compete in U.S. school sports.

The author of the law, Rep. Michelle Davis, said at the time that the legislation was important whether it affected one student or 100. Davis this year has filed an expansion of the law that would affect collegiate and out-of-state teams. She did not return a request for comment.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging the law on behalf of a transgender Indianapolis Public Schools student. But the group the lawsuit in early 2023 after the student transferred schools.

Lawmakers then passed a law in 2023 requiring schools to inform a parent of a student’s request to use a different name, nickname, pronoun, title, or word to refer to themselves. Supporters say parents have a right to know about such cases.

“It’s been helpful and effective in putting school officials on notice that when a child is asking questions about gender, or any mental or physical issue, the first call should be to mom and dad,” said Matt Sharp, the ADF attorney.

But without specific guidance from the Indiana Department of Education about how districts should notify parents, or whether they should categorize such requests in any way, the result has been .

From a legal perspective, this inconsistency can open districts to lawsuits and other conflicts, according to Heiser, the attorney who consults with districts.

In addition, such laws can affect students, even — and sometimes especially — when they are applied inconsistently, said Brian Dittmeier, director of public policy at GLSEN, a nonprofit focused on supporting LGBTQ+ students.

“When hostile laws are passed, and especially hostile laws that are vaguely drafted, it leads to a chilling effect on LGBTQ free expression,” said Dittmeier. “It leads to self-policing that harms students’ free expression and inclusion in the school community.”

A Chalkbeat survey of Indiana’s 10 largest districts found little willingness to share or discuss their policies.

Some districts use the notification requirement to hold a meeting with parents about how to support their students. Another district requires parental permission to use a nickname or pronoun that a student has requested.

Some districts’ policy interpretations obtained by Chalkbeat focus on students making a request related to their gender identity. Others applied the policy to all nicknames, including nicknames that cisgender students had used for years, .

Some districts informed students that their parents would be notified about such changes, and gave them the chance to rescind their name or pronoun change request. But it’s unclear how widespread this practice is.

From 2023 to 2024, three districts — Perry Township, Fort Wayne, and Tippecanoe — each sent between 56 and 67 notifications to parents to inform them of a student’s desire to use a nickname or different pronoun, title, or word.

Students later rescinded some of their requests, indicating that the law may have pushed some transgender students away from publicly expressing their identity.

But it also isn’t clear from the districts’ data how many such requests or notifications were related to gender identity to begin with. The law doesn’t require schools to collect or share that specific information.

In all three districts, the notifications involved fewer than 1 in 200 students, or less than 0.5% of enrollment. The notices were most common in high school.

Several districts, including Indianapolis Public Schools, said that only individual schools track the notifications.

School voucher use surges as wealthier families qualify

If Indiana policymakers want to change schools’ approach to social issues, the stats don’t really say clearly whether they’ve succeeded.

But with private school choice, numbers tell a plain story — one that poses a different long-term challenge to public schools than culture war clashes, albeit a related one.

Over the last few years, as conservatives nationwide have pushed back on transgender student rights and certain classroom content, their reasons to support school choice nationwide have also begun to focus less on helping just students from low-income households or struggling schools, and more on giving choices to all families.

Private school enrollment in Indiana has surged since 2020, reaching an all-time high of 92,000 students in 2023-24.

The growth has been partly driven by Choice Scholarship Accounts — Indiana’s decade-old school voucher program. Though vouchers began as a targeted program offering state funding for private school tuition for low-income families, the qualifications have .

Last year, the program saw a in enrollment, driven largely by in 2023. Families can now make 400% of the amount required for students to qualify for federally subsidized meals — or around $230,000 for a family of four.

This year, lawmakers could remove the final income limit on which families can receive vouchers to make the program fully universal. That’s a priority for GOP Gov. Mike Braun and legislative leaders.

“I’m not going to apologize that our caucus will be very supportive of universal vouchers,” said GOP Rep. Bob Behning, chair of the House Education Committee, at a December legislative . “I think letting parents make that choice as to what’s best for their son or daughter is the best way to move forward.”

Since 2021, lawmakers have also added new voucher-like programs to pay for special education expenses and career training. Both of those programs reached this year, and some lawmakers have pushed to make the former available to all families to purchase classes and services using state funding.

It’s unlikely that many Indiana politicians believe in the complete privatization of the education system, said Lubienski of Indiana University. But the implicit effects of the social issue laws include raising questions about the public education system.

“The social issues put a target on public education and create a narrative that they’re serving special interests, or students who feel they’ve been ignored, at the expense of the wider population,” Lubienski said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Kae Petrin is a data & graphics reporter who covers data related to K-12 education, voting rights, and public health for Civic News Company. Contact them at kpetrin@chalkbeat.org.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at

Tennessee House and Senate education committees passed the governor’s private-school voucher program Tuesday, speeding the $450 million first-year expense to final votes before week’s end.

Senators voted 8-1 to send the measure to the finance committee to be considered Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Franklin Republican carrying the bill for Gov. Bill Lee, told lawmakers the plan will “empower families to do something for their kid, fulfilling needs we’re not meeting with this public school system that we run together with our local folks.”

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Johnson claimed a mandate to pass the measure from President Donald Trump, who posted on his Truth Social platform earlier that he supports Tennessee lawmakers’ efforts to adopt “school choice.”

“It is our goal to bring education in the United States to the highest level, one that it has never attained before,” Trump said in his post.

Lee’s plan, which is zooming toward final votes in a special session this week, calls for providing more than $7,000 each to 20,000 students statewide and then expanding by about 5,000 annually. Half of those students in the first year could come from families with incomes at 300% of the federal poverty level, an estimated $175,000 for a family of four, while the rest would have no income limit. No maximum income would be placed on the program after the first year.

A financial analysis by the state’s Fiscal Review Committee determined K-12 schools will lose $45 million and that only $3.3 million would go toward 12 school districts most likely to lose students.

Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari of Memphis was the lone vote against the bill as she urged the committee to “exercise a bit more caution.” Akbari reminded senators that students participating in the state’s education savings account program, which provides vouchers to enroll in private schools in Davidson, Hamilton and Shelby counties, are performing worse academically than their peers.

In contrast, Republican Sen. Adam Lowe of Calhoun said standardized tests shouldn’t be the deciding factor in passing the bill. Lowe also told Hawkins County Schools Director Matt Hixson he shouldn’t be worried about talk that some local leaders in upper East Tennessee believe they have to support the voucher bill or the legislature could refuse to approve $420 million for Hurricane Helene disaster relief.

The House panel endorsed the plan on a 17-7 vote after Republican lawmakers used a procedural move to bypass debate on the bill. Rep. Jake McCalmon of Williamson County called for an immediate vote following public testimony, backed by Rep. William Slater of Sumner County. The move kept opponents from questioning the bill’s sponsor, House Majority Leader William Lamberth.

Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville called the move “ridiculous” afterward because of the impact the bill could have on public schools and the state’s budget.

In addition to complaining that the state will be running two school systems and likely hitting financial problems, Johnson challenged Lamberth’s assertion that the bill will make public schools “whole” when they lose students to the private-school voucher program.

Lamberth, though, said public schools would not lose “one red cent” as a result of the program.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

One thing is clear from the stories that populate this year’s list: Many of America’s schools are still grappling with the academic struggles that followed the pandemic – as well as the end of federal relief funds, which expired this fall. Student enrollments have yet to recover and many districts are facing – or will soon face – tough decisions about closures.

Meanwhile, some educators are testing innovative ways of teaching math, reading and science, hoping to gain back some of the academic ground lost since the COVID shutdowns. Technology is also playing a pivotal role in this post-pandemic world, with communities weighing the impact of cellphones and artificial intelligence on student learning and mental health.

November’s election – which featured debates over school choice, Christianity in public schools and the fate of the Department of Education – also made headlines here at Âé¶čŸ«Æ·. And, as calls for cracking down on immigration grew even louder, we dug deep into the hurdles facing immigrant students and schools. 

Here’s a roundup of our most memorable and impactful stories of the year:

Exclusive: Thousands of Schools at Risk of Closing Due to Enrollment Loss

By Linda Jacobson

Long before districts close schools, enrollment loss takes a toll on staff and families, from combined classes to the loss of afterschool programs. This exclusive analysis by Linda Jacobson, based on Brookings Institution research, found that more than 4,400 schools lost at least one-fifth of their students during the pandemic — more than double the number during the pre-COVID period. The detailed look shows how the crisis is playing out at the school level and which districts face tough decisions about closures and cuts. 

Unwelcome to America’: Hundreds of U.S. High Schools Wrongfully Refused Entry to Older, Immigrant Student

By Jo Napolitano

Âé¶čŸ«Æ·â€™s 16-month-long undercover investigation of school enrollment practices for older immigrant students revealed rampant refusals of teens who had a legal right to attend, shutting a door critical to success in America. Senior reporter Jo Napolitano called 630 high schools in every state and D.C. to test whether they would enroll a 19-year-old Venezuelan newcomer who had limited English language skills and whose education was interrupted after ninth grade. “Hector Guerrero” was turned down more than 300 times, including 204 denials in the 35 states and D.C., where high school attendance goes up to at least age 20. Âé¶čŸ«Æ·â€™s investigation revealed pervasive hostility and suspicion toward these students in a particularly xenophobic era and a deeply arbitrary process determining their access to K-12 education.

Interactive: Which School Districts Do the Best Job of Teaching Kids to Read?

By Chad Aldeman

It’s not news that low-income fourth graders are years behind their higher-income peers in reading. But poverty is not destiny, and some schools and districts hugely outperform expectations. Working with Eamonn Fitzmaurice, Âé¶čŸ«Æ·â€™s art and technology director, contributor Chad Aldeman set out to find districts that are beating the odds and successfully teaching kids to read. From Steubenville City, Ohio, to Worcester County, Maryland, and across the country, click on their interactive map to find the highfliers in your state. 

Whistleblower: L.A. Schools’ Chatbot Misused Student Data as Tech Company Crumbled

by Mark Keierleber

In early June, a former top software engineer at ed tech startup, AllHere, warned Los Angeles district officials and others about student data privacy risks associated with the company’s AI chatbot “Ed.” The LA Unified School District had agreed to pay AllHere $6 million for the chatbot and the spring rollout of Ed was highly publicized, with L.A. schools chief Alberto Carvalho calling the chatbot’s student knowledge powers “unprecedented in American public education.” But, as Mark Keierleber reported, red flags soon began to emerge. The company financially imploded and its founder Joanna Smith-Griffin left the company. In November, federal prosecutors indicted her, accusing of defrauding investors of $10 million.

America’s Most Popular Autism Therapy May Not Work — and May Cause Serious Harms

by Beth Hawkins

Today, a child’s new autism diagnosis is frequently followed by a referral to a variation of an intervention called applied behavior analysis, or ABA, and four decades of pressure from parents and advocates has created a sprawling treatment industry. Yet, even as providers and lobbyists jockey to strengthen ABA’s dominance, autistic adults and researchers increasingly say there’s alarmingly little proof it’s effective — and mounting evidence it’s traumatizing. In an exclusive investigation, Beth Hawkins spoke with families, teachers and scholars about the growing controversy surrounding autism’s “gold standard” treatment. 

A Cautionary AI Tale: Why IBM’s Dazzling Watson Supercomputer Made a Lousy Tutor

by Greg Toppo

In 2011, IBM’s Watson supercomputer crushed Jeopardy! champions, raising hopes that it could help create a powerful tutoring system that would rival human teachers. But the visionary at the head of the effort watched as the project fizzled, the victim of AI’s inability to hold students’ attention. As new educational AI contenders like Khanmigo emerge, what lessons can they learn from the past? Âé¶čŸ«Æ·â€™s Greg Toppo took a look at how IBM’s failed effort tempers today’s shiny AI promises.

State-by-State, How Segregation Legally Continues 7 Decades Post Brown v. Board

by Marianna McMurdock

Seventy years after the Supreme Court outlawed separating public school children by race, Marianna McMurdock sought to answer a pivotal question: How are some of the most coveted public schools in the U.S. able to legally exclude all but the most privileged families? Last spring, she spoke with researchers at the nonprofits Available to All and Bellwether, which published a report that examined the troubling laws, loopholes and trends that are undermining the legacy of Brown v. Board in each state. The researchers called for urgent legal reform to offset the impact that one’s home address has on enrollment, particularly as many districts have started considering closures.

Being ‘Bad at Math’ Is a Pervasive Concept. Can it Be Banished From Schools?

by Jo Napolitano

Are you bad at math? If you are, it’s likely that self-fulfilling seed got planted early. Many math education leaders are trying to uproot that thinking, arguing that any student can master the subject with the right accommodations and tutoring. Changing the bad-at-math mindset in U.S. schools, however, will not be easy, others warn. “We use math as a means to sort kids by who gets to be at the top and who gets to be at the bottom,” one math equity advocate told Jo Napolitano. 

Hope Rises in Pine Bluff: Saving Schools in America’s Fastest-Shrinking City

by Âé¶čŸ«Æ· Staff

Pine Bluff, Arkansas, earned the unwelcome distinction in the 2020 census of being America’s fastest-shrinking city, losing over 12% of its population in one decade. Amid this exodus of families, students and taxpayers, its school district had to navigate school closures, budget pressures and a state takeover. Throughout last winter, members of Âé¶čŸ«Æ·â€™s newsroom embedded in Pine Bluff to report on the region’s trajectory. Here are some of the powerful stories they came back with: 

Kids, Screen Time & Despair: An Expert in the Economics of Happiness Echoes Psychologists’ Warnings About Tech

By Kevin Mahnken

A prominent economist has joined the growing chorus of experts warning against the dangers posed to youth mental health by screens and social media, reported Kevin Mahnken. New papers released by Dartmouth College professor Danny Blanchflower, a leading expert in the burgeoning field of happiness economics, suggest that the huge increase in screen time over the last decade has made the young more likely to despair than the middle-aged. 

Why Is a Grading System Touted as More Accurate, Equitable So Hard to Implement?

By Amanda Geduld

As educators push for more transparency in grading policies post-pandemic, some are turning to standards-based grading. When done correctly, it separates academic mastery from behavior and more accurately reflects what students know. But misunderstandings of the model, a lack of proper training, and a rush to adopt it often leads to messy implementation. Associate professor Laura Link told Amanda Geduld that as schools look to fix learning gaps, “standards-based grading is one that seems like it can be a quickly adopted effort. But it could backfire — and does backfire — very easily.”

Texas Seeks to Inject Bible Stories into Elementary School Reading Program

by Linda Jacobson

Last May, a sweeping redesign of Texas’ elementary school curriculum that used Bible stories to teach reading was unveiled. At the time, state education Commissioner Mike Morath described the changes as a shift toward a “classical model of education.” But the revisions raised questions about potential religious indoctrination and bias. Nevertheless, in November, the Texas Board of Education approved the new curriculum in a close vote. Linda Jacobson followed the story closely.

The Political War Over the Department of Education Is Only Beginning

By Kevin Mahnken 

Fresh from their November victories, Republicans are already working to help President-elect Donald Trump achieve his promise of abolishing the U.S. Department of Education. But research suggests that, while perceptions of the agency are mixed, the public is unlikely to back a sweeping course of elimination. “Saying you’ll get rid of it reads generically as being anti-education,” one political scientist told Kevin Mahnken. “That strikes me as a very heavy albatross to hang around your neck come the midterms.” 

18 Years, $2 Billion: Inside New Orleans’ Biggest School Recovery Effort in History

By Beth Hawkins

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed 110 New Orleans schools. Displaced families could not return until there were classrooms to welcome their kids, but no one had ever tried to rebuild an entire school system. While many of the buildings were moldering even before the storm, federal funds couldn’t be used to build something better. Some of the schools had landmark status and were of great historical significance. Eighteen years and $2 billion later, Beth Hawkins took a look at seven schools that illustrate how the district accomplished the task.

As Ryan Walters’ Right-Wing Star Rose, Critics Say Oklahoma Ed Dept. Fell Apart

By Linda Jacobson

Oklahoma state education chief Republican Ryan Walters has acted as a one-man publicity machine, a performance that’s earned him venomous foes and ardent fans who follow him with a near-religious fervor. But one casualty of his approach might be a functioning state education bureaucracy. Even Republican lawmakers have grown impatient, calling for a probe into how Walters handles state and federal funds. As Rep. Tammy West, a GOP incumbent running for re-election, told reporter Linda Jacobson, “Regardless of party, citizens want transparency, accountability and communication.”

AI ‘Companions’ Are Patient, Funny, Upbeat — and Probably Rewiring Kids Brains

By Greg Toppo

A college student relies on ChatGPT to help him make life decisions, including whether to break up with his girlfriend. Is this a future we feel good about? While AI bots and companions like ChatGPT, Replika and Snapchat’s MyAI, can offer support, comfort and advice, experts are beginning to warn of potential risks. Âé¶čŸ«Æ·â€™s Greg Toppo talks to researchers and policy experts about what we should be doing to help make them safer.

Indiana Looks to Swiss Experts to Create Thousands of Student Apprenticeships

By Patrick O’Donnell

Indiana officials have turned to experts at the Swiss version of MIT for help in becoming a national career training leader by making apprenticeships available to thousands of high school students across the state. Indiana is the latest state to work with ETH Zurich — where Albert Einstein once studied — to develop ways to break down barriers between educators and businesses so that career training can be a large part of a reinvented high school experience, reported Patrick O’Donnell. 

Investigation: Nearly 1,000 Native Children Died in Federal Boarding Schools

By Marianna McMurdock 

Nearly 1,000 Native American children died while forced to attend government-affiliated boarding schools, according to a report published last summer by the Interior Department. The children are buried in 74 unmarked and marked graves, reported Marianna McMurdock, as tribes assess repatriation of remains. Nearly 19,000 children were estimated to be kidnapped, often at gunpoint, and enrolled in the schools with the aim of assimilation. “We [were] never called by our name, we were all called by our numbers,” said one survivor. 

The Nation’s Biggest Charter School System Is Under Fire in Los Angeles

By Ben Chapman 

The nation’s largest experiment with charter schools is no longer growing. These days, Los Angeles charter operators say they are just trying to survive. With tough new policies governing co-locations, falling enrollment, and a hostile district school board, charter leaders say they’ve never faced stronger headwinds, reported Ben Chapman. With enrollment plummeting across the district, some charter networks have recently announced closures while others have stopped submitting proposals for new campuses. “Now, particularly in L.A., our focus is not on growing,” said Joanna Belcher, chief impact officer for KIPP SoCal. 

Florida Students Seize on Parental Rights to Stop Educators from Hitting Kids

By Mark Keierleber 

Late last year, Florida senior Brooklynn Daniels was called to the principal’s office and spanked with a wooden paddle “that was thick like a chapter book.” Like in many enclaves that dot the Florida panhandle, Liberty County permits corporal punishment as a form of student discipline. But her flogging, the honors student said, went much further: She alleged sexual assault and filed a police report, reported Mark Keierleber. Daniels joined a student-led movement to change Florida law that has latched onto the GOP-led parental rights movement. 

Interactive: See How Student Achievement Gaps Are Growing in Your State

By Chad Aldeman

In 2012, then-President Barack Obama freed states from the accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind in exchange for reforms related to standards, assessments and teacher evaluations. That relaxing of school and district accountability pressures corresponded with a decline in student performance across the country that is still being felt — achievement gaps are growing across subjects and all across the country. To illustrate these alarming discrepancies, contributor Chad Aldeman and Eamonn Fitzmaurice, Âé¶čŸ«Æ·â€™s art and technology director, created an interactive tool that enables you to see what’s happening with student performance in your state.

Left Powerless: Non-English–Speaking Parents Denied Vital Translation Services

by Amanda Geduld

Flouting federal laws, K-12 public schools routinely fail to provide qualified interpreters to non-English-speaking families. Parents must instead rely on Google translate, their own kid or a bilingual staff member who isn’t a trained interpreter for issues as simple as their child’s absence for a day or as complex and intimidating as a special education meeting or a school disciplinary hearing. The problem is pervasive and vastly underreported, experts told Amanda Geduld. School leaders say they are trying their best, but lack the money and staffing to meet the need. 

Failed West Virginia Microschool Fuels State Probe and Some Soul-Searching

By Linda Jacobson

The West Virginia treasurer’s investigation into a microschool, funded with education savings accounts, offers a glimpse into an emerging market that has mushroomed since the pandemic. When the program shut down after a few months, parents were left demanding their money back and scrambling to find other arrangements for their children. The example, experts say, shows that it takes more than good intentions to provide a quality education program. As one parent told Linda Jacobson, “I should have seen the red flags.”

In the Rush to Covid Recovery, Did We Forget About Our Youngest Learners?

by Lauren Camera

The country’s youngest elementary school students suffered steep academic setbacks in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic – just like students in older grades. But new research shows that they aren’t catching back up to pre-pandemic levels in reading and math the way older students are. And when it comes to math, many are falling even further behind. “We were shocked when we first saw the data,” Kristen Huff, vice president of assessment and research at Curriculum Associates, told Lauren Camera.

I fear that in the coming rush to expand publicly-funded private school choice, students with disabilities have a great deal to lose. As the leader and co-founder of a national nonprofit dedicated to advocating for students with disabilities to have access to high-quality educational opportunities and choices, I see school choice and parent empowerment as vital to student success. 

I have also served as a board member, appointed and elected, for a local charter school and a traditional school district. In those roles, I saw firsthand the importance of open enrollment, a public budgeting process, open meeting laws, and essential accountability via state assessments, with an expectation that results are transparent and available for all to see. After all, exercising school choice is a big responsibility for families.

They deserve ready access to clear information and excellent school options – criteria that are especially urgent for students with disabilities and their families.  But too often, as a new paper from the Center for Reinventing Public Education found, families are faced with convoluted admissions policies, limited transportation options and a dearth of choices that can actually meet their children’s needs.

Today, roughly one in five U.S. students requires support under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Their families come from across the political spectrum, from every corner of the country: small towns and rural areas, big cities, sprawling suburbs, and “red” and “blue” states.

The current push to expand private school choice – whether called vouchers, education savings accounts (ESAs), or tuition tax credits – promises little in the way of public access or accountability for delivering results. Instead, these approaches have the dubious distinction of potentially being bad for kids and taxpayers. 

Despite multiple methods of enacting private school choice programs, what is universal is that the rights of children with disabilities are diminished when they step inside a private school. This includes not only the right to attend but also to be taught alongside their peers, and to access individualized supports. So, a child with autism, dyslexia, or Down syndrome, for example, may be denied access, and private schools are under no obligation to provide any specialized services or supports to help them succeed. 

This extends to needs that surface after enrollment – that is, a private school can simply inform the family that the child is “no longer a good fit” for the school. By contrast, a traditional or public charter school is required to conduct an evaluation and provide services. While some private schools cater to students with disabilities, it is very unclear to what extent this model is financially or programmatically sustainable absent designated funding or explicit federal protections.

Making good school choices requires information. Our public education systems are obligated to provide detailed information regarding school and student achievement, graduation rates, and other measures of school quality. Public school choice – among charters, magnets, and traditional schools – is also defined by transparent application and enrollment procedures to ensure fairness. 

In the charter schools sector, for example, when demand exceeds the supply of seats, uniform enrollment systems and public lotteries provide transparency. Yet, as states expand private school choice, only some require participating private schools to adhere to the accountability and oversight systems that apply to public schools. 

The right of any child with a disability to attend school, to be included with peers, and to access individualized supports is only 50 years old in the United States. These important rights have created possibility and independence through education. But they hinge upon public schools: Those rights do not follow students into private educational settings. We cannot forget our recent history, when exclusion was the norm – and we must not go back.

President-elect Trump and his team are not hiding their cards. They have been transparent about seeking to leverage the federal tax code, and specifically tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations, to expand private school choice. As someone who has worked for many years to create the conditions for families to make informed school choices and to help schools earn and keep their trust, I’ve learned that simply having options isn’t enough. A choice in schools is only meaningful if it leads to a better education. 

Her youngest two attend the Mesa Public Schools, Arizona’s largest district. But public school wasn’t a good fit for Kain, who at nearly 11 still doesn’t speak. He needs constant supervision and requires help with tasks like handwashing and opening snacks.

The state’s education savings account, held up among conservatives, allows Pihlman to spend state funds on private school tuition or homeschooling costs. But that program didn’t work for her either. Schools that accept the ESA only offered to put him on a waitlist. For now, they’re homeschooling.

“He’s not aggressive. He’s not violent. He just has high support needs,” she said. She used ESA funds for a music therapy program, but her husband had to attend class with him in case Kain tried to leave or needed to use the bathroom. “They tried their best to work with him, but they weren’t able to accommodate his needs.”

For parents like Pihlman, school choice hasn’t lived up to its promise as an alternative to traditional classrooms. With states like and aiming to pass voucher programs next year — and President-elect Donald Trump vowing to nationalize — a from the Center for Reinventing Public Education focuses on the families that choice has left behind. Confusing admission policies, transportation challenges and inadequate supply means that minority students, kids from low-income families and those with disabilities often miss out. 

“You can’t use choice as a solution to the quality problem,” said Ashley Jochim, the author of the study and a principal at CRPE, a think tank. “Policymakers should make it so there aren’t any really bad choices. That’s priority number one.”

Jochim examined more than 30 years of research on the competitive education landscape, from district lotteries to education savings accounts, with an eye toward challenges faced by families trying to access such programs. 

She points to Milwaukee as an example of the limitations of market-based education. Home to the nation’s first private school voucher program, launched in 1990, the city has a reputation for “robust competition” between the public, private and charter sectors. But involving charter operators and a among private schools participating in its voucher program has sent families scrambling for other options. In a separate, forthcoming paper for Education Next, Jochim notes that between 1990 and last school year, 41% of the private schools participating permanently closed.

Overall, she said, Milwaukee families are left with a system of schools that is “quite middling.” 

A from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, a think tank, echoed that assessment. It shows that the city’s Black students are the least likely to attend high-performing schools. Almost three-quarters of Black students in grades three through eight, in both district and charter schools, score below grade level in math, compared with 29% of white students and 59% of Hispanic students. 

But national data tells a more promising story. A from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes concluded that on average, charter students — including Black, Hispanic and poor students — perform better than their peers in traditional schools. 

To Karega Rausch, the president and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, CRPE’s report means two things can be true at the same time: Charters have improved outcomes for poor and minority students and there are still “real barriers” to increasing the number of high-quality schools. 

A meant to encourage innovative school models and efforts to extend credit to Colorado charters waiting on federal grant funds are examples of policies that can help meet the demand, he said. 

‘High-cost mistakes’

But the momentum building around private school choice demonstrates that parents can sometimes get lost in an abundance of options, Jochim wrote.

Florida, for example, added 1,700 private schools to its voucher program between 2010 and 2020, and Arizona families using an ESA can choose from thousands of , including private schools, tutors, and sports or arts programs. 

“Navigating this rapidly evolving landscape without reliable information increases the risks that families will make high-cost mistakes,” Jochim wrote. “The search for a ‘good’ school can be time consuming, and when the chosen school disappoints, families must begin their search again.”

Families whose children have disabilities often end up in a “holding pattern,” said Lauren Morando Rhim, executive director of the Center for Learner Equity, which focuses on ensuring that students with disabilities receive needed services from charters.

“I’ve spoken to parents who said ‘I tried a district school and they couldn’t serve my child. I tried a charter — they couldn’t serve my child,’ ” she said. Out of “desperation,” they sometimes turn to an ESA-funded private school, but that often means their children won’t be able to interact with non-disabled peers. “They say, ‘I’m not happy about it, but it’s the least bad option right now.’ ”

Jochim supports choice “as a means to introduce some competition and improve all schools,” but thinks that for its most passionate advocates, it has become “a value unto itself.” She recommends that states collect data on students who exit school choice programs to get a fuller understanding of what is driving turnover. 

She also urges policymakers and foundations to fund what school choice experts call “navigators” —those who can help families evaluate options, stay ahead of key deadlines and go into the process more informed. 

‘People trust people’

That’s the work that Colleen Dippel, of Houston-based Families Empowered, has been doing for 15 years. Even with public school choice, she said parents remain confused about how lotteries and magnet schools work. And with Texas likely to pass a voucher bill next year, families are looking at even more options. 

With ESAs also come multimillion-dollar state contracts for payment systems, websites and online vendors marketing supplies and curriculum. Dippel said that parents benefit from having someone to field their questions.

“We have underinvested in people in the school choice space and overinvested in technology,” she said. “People trust people, not institutions.”

Funded largely by donations, Families Empowered is neutral about which models work best, she said, and might steer a family toward a traditional school if its a better fit. She once lost a funder because she wouldn’t agree to direct families to IDEA Public Schools, a large charter network with over 100 schools in Texas. 

She also hopes that Texas learns from other states about how to ensure families can use the programs without having to spend their own money and wait for reimbursement. 

“That would be very concerning for us,” she said. “We believe that’s a barrier that does not need to be in place for low-income families.”

Families using ESAs often wait months to get paid back or say they have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to get . In Arizona, Pihlman uses an ESA debit card to buy books, Legos, puzzles and other supplies for Kain, who is just beginning to write. But she worries that months later, state officials will deny a purchase and she’ll have to pay it back.

Some ESA proponents argue those obstacles aren’t a mark against school choice — just evidence of birthing pains as states explore new options. 

During the pandemic, Kevin Gemeroy relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona, from Seattle, where in-person school wasn’t an option. He uses the state’s ESA program to send his oldest son, a bright student with dyslexia, to a private school, but is considering public school for his youngest. 

“Having a system where you can choose between public school, private school, homeschool, religious school — and be able to use your lifetime of education tax dollars — is a huge advantage,” he said. “Just because some people have problems using the resources available or some people are abusing them doesn’t mean that the other 98% of people that aren’t should have their options limited.” 

Some of Michigan Democrats’ long-sought reforms could come to fruition by the end of the year.

The party wants to use its lame duck session to by making financial audits and individual expenditures available to the public. Also on the table is a bill that would to the schools they run.

– the state was among the first in the nation to pass laws allowing them. They were pitched as a tool of innovation in public education and a means to give parents more school options. .

Michigan’s charter schools, which are also known as public school academies, faced legal challenges early on from opponents who contended that charters weren’t public schools and shouldn’t receive public funding.

Charters must follow state and federal education law.

Charter schools often hire for-profit education management organizations, or EMOs, to run the entire operations of a school, or handle specific tasks like finance or human resources.

The private EMOs are not subject to the same public information laws as traditional public schools. Unlike traditional public schools, for instance, charter schools often aggregate their expenditures into a single line item for “purchased services,” which can make it difficult to track their spending.

Democrats have been skeptical of for-profit EMOs, saying they pocket tax dollars instead of investing the funds in classrooms. Republicans have opposed efforts to increase transparency in charters’ operations, however, arguing it could hinder the schools’ growth.

The history of charter schools in Michigan is long and complex. Here is a timeline of some major events:

This story was originally published at Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Mississippians who are dead set on enacting private school vouchers could do like their counterparts in Kentucky and attempt to change the state constitution to allow public funds to be spent on private schools.

The courts have ruled in Kentucky that the state constitution prevents private schools from receiving public funds, commonly known as vouchers. In response to that court ruling, an issue was placed on the ballot to change the Kentucky Constitution and allow private schools to receive public funds.

But voters threw a monkey wrench into the voucher supporters’ plans to bypass the courts. The amendment was overwhelmingly defeated this month, with 65% of Kentuckians voting against the proposal.

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Kentucky, generally speaking, is at least as conservative or more conservative than Mississippi. In unofficial returns, 65% of Kentuckians voted for Republican Donald Trump on Nov. 5 compared to 62% of Mississippians.

In Mississippi, like Kentucky, there has been a hue and cry to enact a widespread voucher program.

Mississippi House Speaker Jason White, R-West, has voiced support for vouchers, though he has conceded he does not believe there are the votes to get such a proposal through the House Republican caucus that claims a two-thirds supermajority.

And, like in Kentucky, there is the question of whether a voucher proposal could withstand legal muster under a plain reading of the Mississippi Constitution.

In Mississippi, like Kentucky, the state constitution appears to explicitly prohibit the spending of public funds on private schools. The Mississippi Constitution states that public funds should not be spent on a school that “is not conducted as a free school.”

The Mississippi Supreme Court has never rendered a specific ruling on the issue. The Legislature did provide $10 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to private schools. That expenditure was challenged and appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court. But in a ruling earlier this year, the state’s high court did not directly address the issue of public funds being spent on private schools. It instead ruled that the group challenging the expenditure did not have standing to file the lawsuit.

In addition, a majority of the court ruled that the case was not directly applicable to the Mississippi Constitution’s language since the money directed to private schools was not state funds but one-time federal funds earmarked for COVID-19 relief efforts.

To clear up the issue in Mississippi, those supporting vouchers could do like their counterparts did in Kentucky and try to change the constitution.

Since Mississippi’s ballot initiative process was struck down in an unrelated Supreme Court ruling, the only way to change the state constitution is to pass a proposal by a two-thirds majority of the Mississippi House and Senate and then by a majority of the those voting in a November general election.

Those touting public funds for private schools point to a poll commissioned by House Speaker White that shows 72% support for “policies that enable parents to take a more active role in deciding the best path for their children’s education.” But what does that actually mean? Many have critiqued the phrasing of the question, wondering why the pollster did not ask specifically about spending public funds on private schools.

Regardless, Mississippi voucher supporters have made no attempt to change the constitution. Instead, they argue that for some vague reason the language in the Mississippi Constitution should be ignored.

Nationwide efforts to put vouchers before the voters have not been too successful. In addition to voters in Kentucky rejecting vouchers, so did voters in ruby-red Nebraska and true-blue Colorado in this year’s election.

With those election setbacks, voucher supporters in Mississippi might believe their best bet is to get the courts to ignore the plain reading of the state constitution instead of getting voters to change that language themselves.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

“This is the most conservative legislature in history. We will continue to deliver a conservative agenda that will protect liberty and promote prosperity,” Senate President wrote on X. “With our expanded majority we will make sure our communities are safe and that our kids have the best educational opportunities possible.”

The swing state’s legislative prospects garnered the and a flood of campaign spending, with nearly being spent to elect lawmakers across both parties in 13 races. Democrats focused most energy in five close races in suburban Tucson and Phoenix that could have shifted the Republicans’ previous two-vote majorities. 

Now with the control of both houses, the Republican party can act on their promise to grow the Empowerment Scholarship voucher program, which sends tax dollars to private schools and reimburses families for homeschooling expenses. 

Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs has ESA growth, stating when she took office it “would likely bankrupt the state.” Arizona is considered an unofficial beacon for school choice, the first in the nation to offer families anything resembling a voucher in 2011.

The ESA program, expanded to all families under Republican leadership past its original design to support kids with disabilities or in underperforming schools, was last year. 

The state’s schools chief has said it’s impossible to credit the program, which most recently cost the state about $718 million to support 78,000 students, as causing deficits in the state budget, pointing to an overall surplus in the Department of Education because of declines in projected charter spending. 

Whether or not the state’s budget will be further strained by Republicans’ legislative agenda to expand the program, in its current iteration, it’s also been criticized for lack of accountability. Parents were able, for example, to reimburse $800 driving lessons in luxury vehicles, golf merchandise, and visits to . 

“While you may think this may not be a good use of that family’s ESA funding, at the end of the day, they get a fixed amount of money, and if that’s how they’re going to choose to use it, that’s their prerogative,” ESA director John Ward . 

Today, the nearly 80,000 families enrolled in the program receive about $7,500 for their childrens’ educational expenses. According to the , the vast majority of funding went to schools that specialize in serving kids with disabilities, particularly autism, and private, religious schools. 

Roughly are students with disabilities, a higher proportion than the average in traditional public schools statewide. 

A revealed low-income families are using the program far less frequently than families in wealthier enclaves. For families living in poverty, the location of private schools and financial responsibility of taking on additional transportation, research, and meals costs makes “school choice” an unrealized promise. 

Ayotte beat Democrat Joyce Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, the state’s largest city, with 53.6 percent of the vote. Ayotte previously served one term in the Senate from 2011 through 2016 after four years as New Hampshire’s attorney general. 

The race gained national attention after Ayotte backed, then criticized; and then again backed iPresident-Elect Donald Trump between 2016 and today. Ayotte’s anti-abortion stance was another sharp difference between her and Craig that attracted attention.

But the candidates also took different positions on school choice issues, mostly centering on New Hampshire’s “Education Freedom Accounts,” a plan the state created in 2021 to give parents money to spend on private school tuition or approved homeschooling expenses.

Similar to vouchers, the accounts give parents $4,100 a year if family income is under 350 percent of the federal poverty level, or $109,000 a year for a family of four. More money is available for families with lower income, English language learners or students with disabilities.

Attempts to expand eligibility for the money this year won some support in the state legislature, but not enough to pass. Ayotte has repeatedly called for choice to be “universal,” not just expanded to some groups. 

“I believe that parents make the best decisions for their children,” Ayotte last year. “I’m a strong believer in education freedom
we want to give every child in this state the opportunity to go to the school or the educational setting that is best for them.”

Ayotte’s husband, Joseph Daley is a math teacher at a private school, St. Christopher Academy in Nashua, where students use the accounts.

Her opponent vigorously opposed the accounts, calling them a that takes millions of dollars of tax money away from public schools. The American Federation of Teachers – New Hampshire endorsed Craig,

Ayotte also pledged to back and sign a “parental bill of rights” if elected. There have been and nationally. Ayotte’s campaign did not clarify what the bill would include.

The most prominent in New Hampshire, , required schools to share with parents if students identify as a different gender at school, including using different names. That bill sparked emotional debate last year, with the LGBTQ community saying students have the right to not be “outed” to judgmental parents and parents saying they have a right to raise their children as they want.

from parents, the first state supreme court to rule on an issue flaring up in several states.

Ayotte, however, said throughout the campaign and on that she will “enthusiastically work to pass and sign the Parental Bill of Rights.”

“Parents have a right to decide what is best for their child – period,” according to her site.

One day after the 2024 election, Gov. Bill Lee and lawmakers rolled out a recycled “universal” private-school voucher program designed to gain support from teachers and school districts with extra spending.

The measure doesn’t have a funding estimate attached, but lawmakers placed $144 million in this year’s budget for a plan that failed to pass, and the new proposal could cost another $275 million, plus funds to give teachers a one-time $2,000 bonus. In addition, 80% of all sports wagering money is to be dedicated to building and maintaining K-12 public schools.

Lee’s plan would provide 20,000 “scholarships” worth $7,075 for students to enroll in private schools in 2025-26 with 10,000 of those for students from families at or below 300% of the maximum income to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches — which is estimated to be nearly $175,000 per household income. Students with disabilities and those in the state’s education savings account program would be eligible too.

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Some 350 private schools would be eligible to participate in the program and would be required to administer the state’s standardized test or one that fits their curriculum, but the bill says they would maintain educational freedom.

The state would add 5,000 “scholarships” each year once 75% of them are provided to students.

In introducing the bill, Lee and key lawmakers said they want to offer students a chance at educational success “regardless of their ZIP code.”

“Giving parents the ability to choose for their child will provide more opportunities and reduce poverty throughout our state,” said House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who opposed the school voucher program in 2019. “Increased competition for a student’s enrollment will make schools, school systems and administrators meet the need for a higher quality of education.”

Lawmakers failed to pass a similar bill proposed by the governor earlier this year when the Senate and House couldn’t agree to widely disparate versions. The House bill contained funding to give teachers more money for insurance as well as for districts to maintain school buildings. The Senate version allowed students to transfer to any public district in the state.

Lee told reporters Wednesday this is the legislation’s “next step” and said he believes lawmakers are “moving in that direction” to pass the bill. General Assembly leaders have tried to address members’ concerns in writing the bill, he said.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth said in a statement the bill “leaves no stone unturned when it comes to providing the very best educational path to set the next generation up for success.” He said the measure will allow public schools to remain the foundation for Tennessee’s education system while enabling parents instead of the governor to determine which route helps their children the most.

The press release also says the bill “ensures state funding to school districts will never decrease due to disenrollment,” and the governor backed that up Wednesday.

One of opponents’ biggest complaints has been that private-school vouchers will drain money from public schools.

Yet the bill says a school district’s funding “shall not decrease from one year to the next year due to the disenrollment of students.” If districts lose students, the state would have to pay additional funds to those districts to cover those transfers for just one year.

In addition, the bill denies “scholarships” to undocumented students, even though a 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe, prohibits states from denying students a free public education based on immigration status.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville said it is clear the governor is trying to buy teachers’ support with bonus pay.

“It’s offensive that this voucher con job, which quite clearly will make it nearly impossible for Tennessee to keep paying teachers what they deserve, is being accompanied by this one-time token money,” Yarbro said.

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Several GOP wins in the Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday will expand Republicans’ existing majority, giving Abbott an estimated 87 of 150 seats in the lower chamber. When lawmakers reconvene in January, that could finally give him the votes needed to successfully put forth legislation that offers a universal voucher, or education savings account — a proposal that many Democrats and rural Republican lawmakers have rejected in past legislative sessions.

“Frankly, it was a bit surprising that Abbott pulled this off,” said Jon Taylor, a political scientist at the University of Texas at San Antonio. 

With flips of Democratic seats in Corpus Christi and Uvalde, the GOP now enjoys an 87-to-63 margin in the House. He noted, “At a minimum, the Legislature is likely to pass some form of an Education Savings Account plan,” which families could use to cover tuition or other expenses. 

Taylor added that two House districts in San Antonio came close to flipping the other way, from Republican to Democratic, but fell short by about four percentage points apiece, handing the seats to pro-ESA Republicans.

Abbott, who first began pushing for school choice , has aggressively fought for it ever since. In 2023, he called lawmakers into four special legislative sessions to pass a school choice bill, among other measures, and has proposed giving students about $10,500 per year, overseen by the state comptroller. 

He has also worked over the past year to oust lawmakers who fought his proposal to offer ESAs to all students, not just those whose families are low-income.

With deep pockets, Abbott targets ESA foes

Late last year, Abbott began actively campaigning against members of his own party who stood in his way, portraying them as weak on important issues like border security and property tax relief. He was aided by deep-pocketed donors and political action committees that poured millions of dollars into state legislative races.

Jeff Yass, a well-known school choice proponent and investor in TikTok parent company Byte Dance, contributed more than in this political cycle, while Miriam Adelson, owner of the Las Vegas Sands casinos, spent about , making the pair — residents of Pennsylvania and Nevada, respectively — Texas’ two biggest political donors.

Last spring, the effort helped persuade voters to unseat eight House Republicans who had blocked ESAs. One of them, of San Antonio, said in a September interview with Âé¶čŸ«Æ· that he opposed Abbott’s plan because Texas families already have many options, from magnet schools to charters to a program that lets students in low-performing schools transfer to a better-performing school. Lawmakers, he said, have approved countless programs that provide “choice on top of choice on top of choice” within districts.

Abbott is already doing a victory lap. Taking to the social media site X , he wrote, “Every candidate that I backed in Texas House general election races won tonight. We even had Republican candidates win seats that had been held by Democrats. There are more than enough votes to pass school choice in Texas.”

Katherine Munal, policy and advocacy director of , said Tuesday’s election results in Texas mark “a significant victory for school choice advocates, signaling a continued momentum for policies that prioritize parental empowerment and educational freedom.”

Texas, she said, “is poised to expand opportunities for students and families, allowing them to access a wider range of educational options that best meet their needs. This shift reflects a broader recognition of the importance of individualized education and the belief that every child deserves the opportunity to thrive in an environment that works for them.”

Mark P. Jones, a political scientist at Rice University, said that for Abbott, “the night really couldn’t have gone better.” 

The question now, he said, isn’t whether school choice will succeed in Texas in 2025. “It’s really what form of school choice legislation will pass. How robust and expansive will it be?”

The most likely scenario, he said, would have Abbott offering an ambitious proposal with more students covered than in his 2023 plan, and with less money going to school districts that lose students to ESAs.

While foes of Abbott’s plan can probably still negotiate to help districts, he said any hope that Democrats and anti-school-choice Republicans had of blocking choice in 2025 “vanished last night.”

Abbott has pushed for ESAs despite recent polling that isn’t necessarily conclusive: of respondents to a recent University of Texas survey said they support spending taxpayer dollars to help families pay for private school. Meanwhile, a poll from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University found 65% support.  

The Texas Education Agency last year estimated that about 500,000 children, or about half of the state’s private school and homeschooled students, would apply for the program in its first stages, with more each cycle. The figures prompted Democratic Rep. James Talarico during a legislative hearing that it would be “a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top.”

He added, “It’s welfare for the wealthy.”

Elsewhere on Tuesday, voters in two states — Kentucky and Nebraska — defeated voucher-related ballot measures. A third measure, in Colorado, appeared headed for defeat.

McCormick, a Democrat and career educator who pledged to focus on school funding and academic freedom, lost by a wide margin — — with 92% of precincts reporting. 

Braun, 70, will succeed Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who was unable to run again because of term limits. 

A former school board member who cited faith, family and community as his central concerns, Braun said Tuesday that serving in government is far easier than running a business, as he had for decades: He was founder and CEO of Meyer Distributing, an auto parts and equipment company he built in his hometown of Jasper. 

“In government, you just have to be smart enough to not spend more than you take in,” he told supporters. 

Braun served as a state representative from 2014 to 2017. He resigned in November 2017 to concentrate on his run for U.S. Senate. 

His multi-point plan for education focused on expanding the state’s popular school voucher program, which grew to encompass more than — a 31% increase from the year before.

Braun is also a staunch supporter of parents’ rights and has, in the past, . He said parents should be informed if their child seeks to use a different name or pronouns and that transgender girls — whom he calls biological males — should not compete in girls’ sports. 

His new lieutenant governor, pastor Micah Beckwith, co-hosts a podcast called “Jesus, Sex and Politics.” He raised ire when he said in 2021 that God had . Beckwith wasn’t Braun’s first choice: Indiana’s GOP delegates chose him in a stunning vote at the party’s convention in June, rejecting Braun’s pick, first-term . 

Despite the shakeup, the pair trounced McCormick and running mate , a former school superintendent and state representative. 

Among his many pledges, Braun has vowed to create an Indiana Office of School Safety to streamline several departments and implement age-appropriate cyber safety training for students. 

He also said the state should limit cellphone use in schools and favors curtailing some speech in classrooms.  

“We need to protect our children by making sure divisive theories like [critical race theory] or discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity have no place in our public schools,” his campaign website said. 

Braun also wants to increase the base salaries for Indiana’s public school teachers and financially reward educators whose students perform well. 

Indiana has not elected since 2000. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won the state handily over Democrat Kamala Harris 58.9% to 39.4%. 

Stein, who will be the state’s first Jewish governor, has singled out improving the state’s schools as his top priority as he switches roles from attorney general. He will succeed current Democratic governor Roy Cooper, who could not seek re-election as his term expired. 

Though his win was anticipated by experts as the Robinson campaign crumbled in the wake of multiple scandals over the last few weeks, the vote was historic for North Carolina, which typically sees wins below a 4-point margin. Stein claimed a .

In September, as polls began showing favor for Stein, reported Robinson called himself a “Black Nazi” and said “slavery is not bad” on a porn site. His staffers quit and donations dried up. Former endorser President Donald Trump distanced himself.

Addressing supporters on election night after the race was called, moderate Stein rejected “hate” and re-emphasized his commitment to working across party lines for progress. 

“We have big challenges ahead, but we have even bigger dreams to realize,” . “
We must reject the politics of division, fear and hate that keep us from finding common ground. We will go further when we go together. Not as Democrats, not as Republicans, not as independents, but as North Carolinians.”

For schools, Stein campaigned on plans to improve youth mental health by recruiting counselors, nurses and social workers; increasing teacher pay; expanding career and vocational education; and providing universal school meals. Stein was endorsed by the state’s teachers union. 

Robinson, in contrast, threatened to reject billions of federal funding for education and campaigned on expanding the voucher system that allows families to attend private schools with public funding. 

Robinson’s flare for hateful, anti-LGBTQ and misogynistic rhetoric, condemned by the NAACP, would have also likely fueled disrespect for educators, whom he called “,” and distrust for the department of education, which he had said he wanted to get rid of entirely. 

While electing Stein, voters split their ballots to support Trump, but also elected a Democratic schools chief, overlooking party affinities in the interest of their childrens’ education. Democrat Mo Green, a large-district superintendent, claimed victory early Wednesday morning for state superintendent, earning more votes than right-wing homeschooling advocate and January 6 insurrectionist . 

Governor-elect Stein grew up in Chapel Hill, a college town, before studying history, law and government. He taught English and economics in Zimbabwe and served as a state senator for seven years before becoming attorney general in 2017. 

Stein has also promised to protect abortion rights, in a state where Republican lawmakers are discussing restricting access with a 6-week ban. 

A critical seat in the state legislature also flipped Democrat this Election Day, , . The body may now be forced to negotiate more with Stein.