American Federation for Children

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Looking for the facts about school choice? You’ve come to the right place. Here's what you need to know about school choice programs and the school choice movement nationwide.

Programs

• As of the 2011-12 school year, there were 27 private school choice programs enacted across the country. Fifteen of those programs were school voucher programs and 10 were scholarship tax credit programs.
• There was more than $800 million in dedicated funding available for school voucher and scholarship tax credit programs nationwide in 2011-12. Over the previous five years, the amount of dedicated funding for school choice programs has more than doubled from less than $300 million.
• More than half of the school choice programs enacted over the past five years were either passed by Democratic legislatures or signed by Democratic governors.
• The nation’s longest-running school choice program is the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (a voucher program created in 1990). The nation’s newest school choice programs, all enacted in 2011, are the Choice Scholarship Program in Indiana, the Racine Parental Choice Program in Wisconsin, the Empowerment Savings Accounts Program in Arizona, the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program in Ohio, and the Equal Opportunity Education Scholarships Program in Oklahoma.

States

• As of the start of the 2011-12 school year, 13 states and the District of Columbia offered private school choice programs.
• States with school voucher programs and/or scholarship tax credit programs operating in 2011-12 include: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin.
• Two states (Ohio and Arizona) have four school choice programs each.
• Legislators more than 40 states introduced legislation to enact school choice programs during the most recent legislative session.
• Over the past five years, the number that has enacted school choice programs has doubled.

Student Enrollment

• During the 2011-12 school year, there were 210,524 children benefiting from school voucher, scholarship tax credit, and education savings account programs across the country. The state with the highest number of students in school choice programs was Florida.
• There were 81,590 students enrolled in school voucher programs and 128,792 students enrolled in scholarship tax credit programs in 2011-12.