Two years after Arkansas passed universal education choice, the average achievement of participating students rose even as the program tripled in size, with homeschoolers leading the way. That’s the big news from a new University of Arkansas report that analyzed the results from the first year the state’s Education Freedom Account program was available to every K–12 student.
The growth in program participation and improvement in student outcomes in the Natural State is another in a series of universal school choice successes across the country.
After Arizona passed universal choice, the number of private schools in the program increased by 150 in just the first year, while the number of vendors offering educational resources and services increased by 27 percent.
In Iowa, low-income children who participate in the education savings account program outperform low-income children in traditional public schools on measures of both achievement and growth.
In West Virginia, home to the country’s first universal choice program, participation in the Hope Scholarship Program nearly doubled in 2025, increasing from 5,443 students the previous year to 10,530 students.
These programs are wildly popular among families, and none spend anywhere near as much as public schools. Moreover, the available data shows that their misuse rates are very low. In Arizona, egregious unallowed purchases account for just 0.3 percent of ESA spending, and even the overall improper spending rate is around 2 percent—far below the improper payment rates for long-established government programs like SNAP and Medicaid.
Kids are performing better, programs are growing at rapid rates, and taxpayer funds are being spent effectively and responsibly. The market is working, just as Milton Friedman predicted.
Despite this success, the regulators are coming.
During the 2026 legislative session, EdChoice tracked 95 bills across 21 states that sought to regulate or eliminate parental choice in education. Forty-three bills were aimed at curtailing education savings accounts, and 28 targeted homeschooling. The main approaches to reducing parental choice included adding onerous reporting or governance mandates, shrinking program eligibility, lowering funding, and even repealing programs outright.
