Do Universal School Choice Programs Affect Student Achievement: Initial Evidence from Arkansas Education Freedom Accounts

• In Event: The Latest Research on Private School Choice: Public Opinion, Participation, and Program Effects

Abstract

Private school choice policy is transitioning from small urban voucher programs targeted at low-income students to large statewide Education Savings Account (ESA) programs available to all school-age students. While the academic effects of school voucher programs are well established (though mixed), little is known about the effects of ESAs. The expenditure accounts provided through these programs can be used like vouchers for private school tuition and fees or to support homeschooling through a variety of education products and services from multiple vendors. Investigating ESA programs’ academic effects is increasingly important as several states – including Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, New Hampshire, and West Virginia – have made eligibility universal and fund all interested students.           

Ours is the first universal ESA program effectiveness evaluation. Arkansas’s ESA program, called Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs), was established by the LEARNS Act of 2023. While it was targeted at disadvantaged students in 2023-24 and 2024-25, beginning in 2025-26, all school-age children in Arkansas are eligible for the program and entitled to receive $6,864 in lieu of enrollment in a traditional public or charter school. Over 44,000 students participated in the first year of universal private school choice in Arkansas, with over 10,000 students using their EFAs for homeschooling.

This paper examines the initial academic effects of this expansive program.Our analysis uses detailed administrative records on EFA participants from the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) Office of School Choice and Parental Empowerment. The program requires all participating students to be tested annually using the standardized test selected by their education provider from an extensive list of norm-referenced tests and the state test called the ATLAS exam. We will create an empirically informed concordance between the primary exams taken by EFA students and the ATLAS exam. For our primary analysis, we will use these concordances to propensity-score match EFA students with observationally similar public school students, matching on prior-year scores, census tract, and other key observables. We will then compare one-year growth scores for EFA students and their matched public school peers in 2025-26. Our quasi-experimental study will provide the first evidence of the effects of a universal private school choice program on student achievement.

Author

• Misty Gallo, University of Arkansas
  Presenting Author