Across the country, families continue to call for more educational opportunities for their children. In 2025, state leaders responded.
This year’s legislative momentum reflects a clear national trend: states are pairing universal or near-universal education scholarship accounts (ESAs) with stronger public school choice, including open enrollment and charter school expansion. The result is a growing ecosystem of options that allows families to choose the learning setting that best fits their students.
This blog summarizes the policies states adopted in 2025 that support the expansion of public and private school choice and previews emerging legislative trends that could shape 2026.
Every child deserves access to a quality education that provides the knowledge, skills and values necessary to prepare them for a successful career and fulfilling life.
Education choice allows families to choose the best educational fit for their children. It encompasses public, private and non-traditional schooling options, such as:
In the United States, some children are residentially assigned to schools that don’t fit their unique needs and learning styles. Policymakers can support expanded access to those opportunities by championing education choice policies that are open to all families, no matter their income or ZIP code. States with strong school choice ecosystems do not replace public education; they expand it, ensuring students can attend the school that best supports their needs.
Below is a state-by-state summary of the policies adopted in 2025 to strengthen public and private school choice.
Alabama
Alabama leaders significantly increased support for private education choice through ESAs, bringing the total investment to $231 million. Key legislation included:
Arkansas
Arkansas lawmakers expanded public school choice with SB 624 making it easier for students to transfer to another public school within their home district. The new law also enhances transparency by requiring school districts to publicly post school-level capacity and transfer policies and mandates an annual statewide report on program participation.
Lawmakers also passed SB 625, which included key updates to the Arkansas Education Freedom Account Program such as clarifying eligible expenses and adjusting the application timeline.
Florida
Florida’s 2025 legislative session included several measures to expand school choice, including:
Georgia
Georgia invested $141 million in its ESA program through Speaker Jon Burns’ HB 68, enabling thousands of students—particularly those in low-performing schools—to access customized education options. Families can use up to $6,500 per student for tuition, tutoring, transportation and more.
The passage of SB 82 strengthened local charter school authorization by creating greater transparency and incentives for districts to approve high-quality charter applications. The state budget included $500,000 in incentive funding to support local charter authorization efforts and expand access to public charter schools for Georgia families.
Idaho
Through Rep. Wendy Horman and Sen. Lori Den Hartog’s HB 93, Idaho enacted its first private education choice program, providing refundable tax credits of up to $5,000 per student for eligible educational expenses like tuition, textbooks, tutoring and other learning resources. Families of students with special needs may receive up to $7,500.
Indiana
With the state budget (HB 1001), Indiana lawmakers remained committed to providing options for all students by removing income barriers under the Choice Scholarship voucher program in FY 2027. They also committed an additional $90 million in education funding. Additionally, Indiana preserved and improved its ESA program for special -needs students by maintaining $10 million in annual funding and removing income limits.
Missouri
Missouri’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Program (MOScholars) received dedicated state funding in HB 12. Lawmakers included $50 million in the state budget to expand access to this income-based program, which previously relied solely on charitable donations to fund ESAs.
Nevada
Nevada lawmakers expanded access to more public schools through AB 533 by mandating intra-district open enrollment. The law allows students to attend public schools outside of their attendance zones and requires schools to accept students where space is available. The bill also increases capacity transparency, requiring quarterly updates on schools’ grade-level seat openings.
New Hampshire
Through SB 295, New Hampshire lawmakers expanded access to the state’s Education Freedom Accounts program by adopting universal eligibility with an enrollment cap. Starting with the 2025-26 school year, up to 10,000 students can participate, with a provision to increase the cap by 25% in any year when applications reach 90% of the limit. More than 11,000 students applied in the first month of eligibility, meaning the cap will grow for next school year.Families have improved access to enroll in public schools beyond their assigned area, thanks to SB 97. The legislation limits the ability of local superintendents to block applications for open enrollment both within and across district lines.
North Dakota
With the passage of SB 2241, North Dakota took a historic step forward by enabling public charter schools for the first time, becoming the 47th state to do so. The new law allows charter schools to operate statewide, offering families high-quality public education options beyond traditional district schools. The law ensures increased flexibility for charter schools, allowing them to innovate and provide unique opportunities for students that traditional districts may not be able to offer.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Sen. Julie Daniels and Rep. Chad Caldwell sponsored SB 105, which removed the public school attendance requirement for students applying for the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship. This ensures students with special needs have more direct and immediate access to the program.
Oklahoma lawmakers made key updates to the Parental Choice Tax Credit Act with SB 684, including changes to payment timelines and student re-enrollment priority, streamlining implementation, and additional pathways to accreditation for participating private schools.
South Carolina
South Carolina lawmakers reinstated South Carolina’s Education Scholarship Trust Fund, strengthening the state’s ESA program. S 62 also included measures to:
Tennessee
Tennessee lawmakers enacted a new Education Freedom Scholarship program, expanding ESAs statewide in HB 6004. The new law creates 20,000 scholarships at $7,075 each to be applied for private school tuition and fees followed by approved educational expenses, such as textbooks, tutoring and educational therapies. Half of the scholarships are prioritized for low-income students, students with disabilities and those eligible under Tennessee’s existing ESA program.
New legislation passed in SB 1310 creates a process for high-performing charter schools to replicate in the same district and, in certain circumstances, allows sponsors to apply directly to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to open a new school.
Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott made school choice his priority for 2025, and Texas lawmakers followed his lead by adopting the state’s first private school choice program and the largest day one ESA in the country with the passage of Rep. Brad Buckley and Sen. Brandon Creighton’s SB 2.
With $1 billion appropriated for the program, Texas became one of 17 states to provide universal student eligibility for private school choice. Families can use ESA funds to cover a wide range of educational expenses including private school tuition, instructional materials, transportation and other approved educational expenses.
In 2025 alone:
Combined with expanding open enrollment and growing charter sectors, these actions represent one of the most significant single-year gains in educational opportunity in recent history.
As we look ahead to 2026, states are likely to:
As more states shift from expansion to implementation, state leaders and policymakers should focus on operational excellence, family experience, and high-quality supply chains.
Check out the newly updated School Choice Matters website from our sister organization, ExcelinEd. School Choice Matters explores core policies and policy enhancers in each state that supercharge students’ access to learning environments that best meet their needs.
Then, tune into ExcelinEd’s podcast, Policy Changes Lives, for season 2, episode 4, where host Ben DeGrow talks with Keith Jacobs, Director of Provider Development at Step Up for Students, to discuss how Florida’s choice programs are evolving to allow students to use their ESA funds to customize an education that includes public school district courses.
For a closer look at state-level policy, listen to ExcelinEd in Action’s Statehouse Spotlight Podcast, season 2, episode 14, where I sit down with North Dakota Sen. Michelle Axtman to discuss the state’s first public charter school legislation. Later, in season 2, episode 18, I discuss the strengthening and expansion of South Carolina’s ESA program with Sen. Greg Hembree, and in season 2, episode 9, I sit down with Idaho Rep. Wendy Horman to discuss Idaho’s first school choice program.
Read more from this blog series where we summarize which states took action on key policy trends reshaping K-12 education across the country.
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