Arkansas’ school choice enrollment triples as families ‘vote with their feet’

Arkansas’ universal school choice program is thriving with high retention rates and record enrollment as it begins its third year. 

In its 2024-25 annual report, the Arkansas Department of Education found program participation almost tripled between its first and second years – from 5,500 to over 14,000. 

“The 2024-25 school year marked a strong second year for Arkansas’s Education Freedom Accounts (EFA) program, with substantial growth in participation, expanded eligible uses (including homeschool supports), and encouraging indicators on family satisfaction, retention, and student performance,” the report authors wrote. 

They also praised the program for being “fiscally modest.”  

Three-quarters of EFA students attended a private school while the other quarter (3,400) were homeschooled. 

Additionally, over one-third of scholarships were awarded to students with disabilities, and 16% to military families. 

Scholarship amounts averaged about $7,000. 

The program also boasted high satisfaction among parents and high retention rates: 91% among families and 84% for participating schools. 

Even more astonishing, the program is on track to triple its size again this upcoming year as over 46,000 applicants have already been approved for the 2025-26 school year. 

American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Robert Pondiscio observed families aren’t waiting for school choice to become even more mainstream to jump on board. 

“Families are not waiting for system-level reforms to arrive. Where access is broad, participation follows – and persists,” Pondiscio wrote for the Fordham Institute. “That does not spell the end of public education. It signals a new default. The public purpose in education is shifting from propping up systems to financing learning wherever families find it. 

“The Arkansas report is an early confirmation: Americans are voting with their feet, and they are not going back.” 

He noted other states’ school choice programs are exploding, such as Florida (500,000 students), Arizona (94,000), Iowa (28,000) and West Virginia, New Hampshire and Utah (all around 10,000). 

Some states are also opting into President Trump’s federal school choice initiative. But the bottom line for parents involves freedom. 

Pondiscio highlighted Arkansas’ high retention rate as a sign of parents’ excitement to be back in the driver’s seat of their child’s education. 

“The most telling data point is the program’s 91% retention rate into year three,” he explained. “That number suggests that families are not dabbling impulsively with alternatives to traditional public schools or leaving them in a fit of pique only to return. They’re making durable changes. 

“If this trend holds and is replicated in other ESA states, it should set off alarm bells in public school districts nationwide,” he concluded. “It suggests that once parents exercise choice, they rarely go back.”