School choice advocates have racked up state legislative victories in recent years so extensive that the results speak for themselves. At the beginning of 2020, there were education savings account (ESA) programs operating in only five states, while approximately a dozen states offered parents access to private school vouchers. As of the start of 2025, there are now more than 30 states offering ESAs, education vouchers, and other school choice programs like tax credit scholarships.
As most state legislatures convene new sessions, the historic expansion of school choice in the U.S. that has taken place in recent years is poised to continue in 2025. While most of the recent legislative victories for school choice proponents have occurred in GOP-led states, there are still a number of large, red states, including the most populous red state, where families still lack school choice.
During the last legislative session in 2023, a bill to create an ESA program in Texas passed out of the Senate but stalled in the Texas House. During the subsequent 2024 primaries and general election, more than a dozen members of the Texas House who blocked the 2023 ESA bill were replaced by candidates who campaigned on their support for school choice, with most of them endorsed by Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas). Thanks in large part to Governor Abbott’s efforts to get more supporters of school choice elected to the statehouse in 2024, Abbott and others are confident the votes are now there to enact school choice in Texas this year.
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