Lawmakers in at least six states, including Texas, will ponder 2023 bills proposing to establish new “school choice” programs with Florida legislators looking to expand what is already the nation’s largest use of taxpayer dollars for private school tuitions when they convene in March.
Depending how “school choice” is defined, 47 states offered various taxpayer-funded programs in 2021 to more than 660,000 students—mostly children with special needs—according to the Florida-based National School Choice Awareness Foundation (NSCAF), a nonprofit that orchestrates the annual January National School Choice Week, which is Jan. 22 to 28 this year.
For advocates, “school choice” describes programs that give parents state money to send their children to a school of their choice, including private schools. The most common are education service accounts (ESAs), vouchers, and tax-credit scholarships….