During School Choice Week, let’s debunk the myth that school choice hurts public education.
School choice critics see education in zero-sum terms: As school choice grows, public education funding dwindles.
Or so they claim.
Part of their claim is true: School choice is on the rise. In 2023 alone, 17 states expanded school choice, either adding to their existing programs or implementing new ones. As a result, 20 million students—more than a third of students nationwide—are now eligible for one of these programs.
What’s not true is that this expansion of school choice comes at public education’s expense.
Nationally, public education spending is also increasing. In fact, investment in public education is at an all-time high. In 2023, per-pupil expenditures increased more than 6 percent from the previous fiscal year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
We see this pattern of mutual growth—increased school choice coupled with increased public education spending—in Pennsylvania.
In its 2023–24 budget, Pennsylvania added about $567 million in basic education funding, $50 million in special education funding, and $46 million for universal free breakfast. Gov. Josh Shapiro touted these increases as a “historic investment in K–12 public schools.”
This record increase follows a long line of other record increases in the Keystone State. Since 2013, Pennsylvania has added more than $5 billion in annual education spending.
At the same time as these record increases, Pennsylvania also expanded choice.
On the last legislative session day of 2023, Pennsylvania added $150 million to two tax credit scholarship programs. These additional funds—the largest increase in the two programs’ histories—will provide scholarships to more than 35,000 students seeking educational alternatives.
Pennsylvania lawmakers considered adopting Lifeline Scholarships, also known as the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS). This program, which comprised less than one percent of the originally proposed $45.5-billion state budget, would support students attending Pennsylvania’s lowest-performing schools find a better school.
Moreover, Pennsylvania lawmakers created a separate fund for Lifeline Scholarships/PASS, once again showing how school choice doesn’t take a single cent away from public education.
However, Harrisburg’s zero-sum powerbrokers didn’t budge. Teacher unions and the Democratic caucus of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives coalesced to pressure Shapiro into vetoing Lifeline Scholarships/PASS. Unfortunately, Shapiro buckled and vetoed the line item.
Yet, Lifeline Scholarships/PASS is far from dead. As the governor prepares to deliver his latest budget proposal next month, Shapiro, a Lifeline Scholarships/PASS advocate, will likely reintroduce the program for the new year alongside pleas for increased basic education funding.
Fortunately, Pennsylvania is not alone. Many other states have demonstrated that expanding school choice and increased public education spending are not mutually exclusive endeavors.
In 2023, Ohio not only added nearly $1 billion to public education (a 12 percent increase) but also made all students universally eligible for the state’s EdChoice Scholarship Program.
Oklahoma has invested more in public education in the last five years than the previous 27 years combined. The Sooner State also recently passed $150 million in tax credit scholarships with universal eligibility.
Utah, where public education funding has doubled since 2014, also created the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program in 2023, budgeting $42 million for the first-year school choice program.
State by state, we continue to see the educational ecosystem growing to include choice while also maintaining its prior commitments to public education.
Research confirms that school choice and public education are not mutually exclusive. Patrick Wolfe, a professor of education policy at the University of Arkansas, reviewed 27 of the most relevant studies on the effects of school choice programs on education. Wolfe found 25 of the 27 demonstrated a positive relationship between the two. The remaining two studies showed no effect.
“No empirical study of the competitive effects of private school choice programs concludes that the effects are negative,” writes Wolfe.
If anything, public education has a considerable competitive advantage. Only 9 percent of the nation’s students attend private schools.
Education is far from zero-sum. Instead, education improves with competition as students and families vote with their dollars and feet. Investing in students, not broken systems, will always be a win-win scenario.
Erik Telford is the Senior Vice President of Public Relations at the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank.