The Heritage Foundation has released the latest version of its Education Freedom Report Card, and the Old Dominion is not faring particularly well.
Virginia rose three spots overall from 2023, but still sits at 19th in the rankings. However, it fell two spots in the “education choice” category, and now sits near the bottom of the country at 39th overall.
“Virginia does fairly well in empowering families to choose among private schools but could do much more to expand education choice,” the report card notes. “Virginia could improve its ranking by enacting a K–12 education savings account (ESA) policy, expanding eligibility for and boosting participation in its existing private education choice policy.”
Virginia has one small education choice program on the books, the Education Improvement Scholarships Tax Credits Program, which launched in 2013 and offers a 65 percent tax credit to individuals and businesses to donate to qualified scholarship foundations. The foundations then provide private school scholarships to students whose family household income is less than 300 percent of the federal poverty line. Only 44 percent of children across the commonwealth are eligible for the program.
Copious empirical research on school choice programs such as ESAs makes clear these programs offer families improved access to high-quality schools that meet their children’s unique needs and circumstances, and that these programs improve academic performance and attainment while delivering a quality education at lower cost than traditional public schools.
Additionally, education choice benefits public school students and taxpayers by increasing competition, decreasing segregation, and improving civic values and practices. Research also shows students at private schools are less likely than their public school peers to experience problems such as alcohol abuse, bullying, drug use, fighting, gang activity, racial tension, theft, vandalism, and weapon-based threats. There is also a strong causal link suggesting private school choice programs improve the mental health of participating students.
Not only are education choice programs good policy, they are also broadly popular. EdChoice’s Public Opinion Tracker, last updated on October 8, shows 69 percent of all Virginia adults and 75 percent of Virginia parents with school-aged children are in favor of ESA programs.
Further, a universal ESA program is sorely needed in the Old Dominion because the state’s public schools are habitually failing Virginia’s children. In 2022, only 38 percent of Virginia’s public school fourth-graders and 31 percent of eighth-graders tested “proficient” to grade level in mathematics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) examination, colloquially known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” Just 32 percent of fourth-graders and 31 percent of eighth-graders tested “proficient” in reading. Essentially, and embarrassingly, the state’s public schools are failing to educate roughly seven out of 10 Virginia children to grade-level proficiency in reading and math.
The goal of public education in Virginia today and in the years to come should be to allow all parents to choose which schools their children attend, require every school to compete for every student who walks through its doors, and make sure every child has the opportunity to attend a quality school that best fits their unique needs and circumstances. There has not been a time when providing these opportunities has been more urgent and more needed than right now, but unfortunately the school choice wave is threatening to pass Virginia by.
Simply put, states with robust and expansive school choice programs will be more attractive to families who have the ability to migrate to the state of their choosing. How many will decide against moving to Virginia because it doesn’t offer their children the opportunity to attend the school that best suits their educational needs? Legislators should recognize this and enact a universal ESA program, allowing all current and future Virginians as many options as possible to get their children the education they need and deserve.
The following documents provide more information about education savings accounts and education choice.
Fiscal Effects of School Choice
https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Fiscal-Effects-of-School-Choice-Condensed.pdf
This EdChoice analysis of 40 private educational choice programs in 19 states plus D.C. summarizes the facts and evidence on the fiscal effects of educational choice programs across the United States and finds they have provided up to $28.3 billion in net fiscal savings to state and local taxpayers through Fiscal Year 2018. The programs in the analysis include three education savings accounts programs (ESAs), 19 school voucher programs, and 18 tax-credit scholarship programs.
The 123s of School Choice (2024 Edition)
https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-123s-of-School-Choice.pdf
This report from EdChoice is an in-depth review of the available research on private school choice programs in America. Areas of study include: private school choice program participant test scores, program participant attainment, parent satisfaction, public school students’ test scores, civic values and practices, racial/ethnic integration and fiscal effects.
The Public Benefit of Private Schooling: Test Scores Rise When There Is More of It
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa830.pdf
This Policy Analysis from the Cato Institute examines the effect increased access to private schooling has had on international student test scores in 52 countries. The Cato researchers found that a 1 percentage point increase in the share of private school enrollment would lead to moderate increases in students’ math, reading, and science achievement.
The Effects of School Choice on Mental Health
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3272550
This study from Corey DeAngelis at the Cato Institute and Angela K. Dills of Western Carolina University empirically examines the relationship between school choice and mental health. It finds that states adopting broad-based voucher programs and charter schools witness declines in adolescent suicides and suggests that private schooling reduces the number of times individuals are seen for mental health issues.
Nothing in this Research & Commentary is intended to influence the passage of legislation, and it does not necessarily represent the views of The Heartland Institute. For further information on this subject, visit School Reform News, The Heartland Institute’s website, and PolicyBot, Heartland’s free online research database.
The Heartland Institute can send an expert to your state to testify or brief your caucus; host an event in your state; or send you further information on a topic. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance! If you have any questions or comments, contact Heartland’s government relations department, at [email protected] or 312/377-4000.
Tim Benson joined The Heartland Institute in September 2015 as a policy analyst in the Government Relations Department.
