School choice programs: The avocado toast of state education funding

When younger millennials and older Gen-Zs complained that they couldn’t afford a home, the response from some boomers was, “Well, stop buying avocado toast.”

The younguns rolled their eyes. From 2015 to 2025, house prices in America nearly doubled. The 30-year mortgage rate almost doubled as well. That means that a $175,000 starter home with an $835 monthly mortgage payment in 2015 became a $350,000 house with a $2,259 monthly mortgage payment in 2025.

So maybe it ain’t the avocado toast.

Something similar happens in education policy when school choice opponents try to blame choice programs for bankrupting states. ProPublica devoted an entire article to the idea that Arizona’s choice program is “blowing a hole” in the state budget.

But the truth of the matter is that, in most school choice states, voucher, tax credit and Educational Savings Account programs represent just 0.7 percent of total state expenditures. Looking specifically at states with universal choice programs, the number rises, but only slightly, to about 1.3 percent of total state spending.

So no, it ain’t the choice program.

If choice programs were blowing a hole in state budgets, their total spending would need to be large and growing disproportionately quickly — which they are not. Moreover, the programs would need to be all cost to the state and represent no savings, which is........

© The Hill