Policy Alert: School Choice

Action: Executive Order "Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families" 

What it does: The Order requires the Secretary of Education to issue guidance in 60 days to States on using Federal formula funding for school choice initiatives and directs the Secretaries of several agencies to explore avenues within their departments to allow the use of existing funding for K-12 school choice.  

Key Insights

• The timing of the Order overlapped with the  annual National School Choice Week and reflects the President's priority to expand school choice, which could allow more government funding to support non-traditional public schools including private, faith-based, and public charter schools. 

• The Order also came on the heels of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress results and cited data of 8th graders, of whom 70 percent scored below proficient in reading and 72 percent scored below proficient in math.  

• Most school choice programs currently exist at the state level, with individual states designing and managing their own voucher programs, charter school systems, or other option. 

• Additionally, several agencies (Labor, HHS, Defense, and Interior) are given 90 days to complete related directives, with the intention of impacting the upcoming 2025-2026 school year. For HHS, this includes reviewing the Child Care and Development Block Grant to consider opportunities to support school choice. Both the Defense Department and Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education operate schools which may now shift to include access to school choice options.