With New Laws in Florida and Indiana, 7 States Have Universal School Choice

By Kathryn Hickok

Two more states recently expanded their school choice programs, bringing the total number of states with universal or near-universal student eligibility to seven.

In March, Florida became the fourth state this year to enact a universal school choice program for K-12 students. All Florida children now have the option to choose an Education Savings Account (ESA) funded at about $7,500 per year. Families who want to opt into the program may use ESA funds to pay for non-public-school tuition, tutoring, or other education services.

On April 28, Indiana expanded eligibility for its school choice programs. According to the American Federation for Children, Indiana’s voucher program is now available to any family with an income below 400% of Free and Reduced-Price Lunch levels ($222,000 for a family of four). Income eligibility for Indiana’s tax credit scholarship and ESA programs also increased to the same level. This means that about 96.5% of Indiana families with school-aged children would qualify for one of the state’s educational choice programs.

Arizona, West Virginia, Utah, Iowa, and Arkansas also have enacted universal school choice laws. Oregon should join these education pioneers, so families can match their children’s needs and goals with the school environments that will serve them best.

Kathryn Hickok is Executive Vice President at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization, and Director of Cascade’s Children’s Scholarship Fund-Oregon program.

Did you like this article? Contribute to Oregon’s premier public policy research organization online at CascadePolicy.org. Donations to Cascade Policy Institute are tax-deductible to the extent of the law.