SUSHA ROY, HEATHER L. SCHWARTZ, ALEXIS GABLE
The Path Toward
Evaluating the Impacts
of Education Savings
Accounts on Academic
Achievement Outcomes
K
–12 Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) are government-funded accounts typically estab-
lished for parents who opt not to enroll their children in public schools. ESAs allow parents
to spend funds that the state would have spent for their student to attend their local public
school on a broad array of educational expenses, such as private school tuition, curriculum
materials, textbooks, tutoring services, technology (e.g., laptops or tablet devices), transportation
costs, and school supplies. They give parents an unprecedented amount of flexibility to determine
how public funds are used to educate their children.
1
ESAs have gained policy traction in the past several years. As of July 2024, 18 states have ESA
programs, compared with just four states (Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, and North Carolina) in
2019. Some states have adopted ESA programs for students who meet certain eligibility criteria,
while others have adopted universal ESAs, which means that states provide ESA funds to families to
pursue private schooling and other educational options regardless of their economic or other needs.
The expansion of ESAs—particularly to universal ESAs—adds to existing debates about school
choice. Although proponents emphasize the importance of parent choice in their children’s educa-
tion, some critics decry the diversion of public funding to non-public schools and stress the lack of
accountability and reporting for the usage of public dollars.
Despite the rapid expansion of ESAs, there is no empirical research on their effectiveness. This
lack of research is due to both political and practical reasons.
• Politically, states may be hesitant to conduct evaluations of programs that are contentious,
especially before those programs mature. Furthermore, private schools have historically not
been subject to traditional accountability systems that often require students to take state
standardized tests. A lack of agreement about metrics of success—student growth on stan-
dardized academic assessments, graduation rates, college-going rates, parental and student
Research Report
