Education

New research finds school-choice students outperform peers

August 10, 2026

Ray Carter

As school-choice programs have expanded in numerous states, including Oklahoma, parents from all income levels have used those programs to send their children to private schools.

Yet opponents continue to insist that school-choice beneficiaries may not receive the same quality education that they would in a geographically assigned public school.

New research from two states shows otherwise, finding that children who access private schools through school-choice programs outperform the majority of their peers, regardless of the child’s socioeconomic status.

In Wisconsin, there are currently three major school-choice programs in place: the statewide Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, the Racine Parental Choice Program, and the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) recently released peer-reviewed academic research analyzing more than 100,000 low- and middle-income Wisconsin students between the 2018-19 and 2022-23 school years.

The analysis, which measured performance on the English/Language Arts (ELA) portion of the Wisconsin Forward Exam, compared the results of school-choice beneficiaries with students from similar economic backgrounds in the public-school system. Researchers found that, across all three of Wisconsin’s major private-school choice programs, students who remained enrolled longer consistently experienced stronger academic growth in reading than similar students who stayed in public schools.

“This groundbreaking research provides some of the clearest evidence yet: school choice is a win for students,” said Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty Research Director Will Flanders. “Our peer-reviewed analysis focuses on low-and-middle-income Wisconsin students who are the sole participants in Wisconsin’s unique choice programs. Our research should serve as a fire alarm for states evaluating new limitations or even repealing their choice programs. Make no mistake, those students will suffer due to their misjudgment.”

“Our research was subject to rigorous academic scrutiny during the peer review process,” said Dr. Scott Niederjohn, director of the Free Enterprise Center at Concordia University-Wisconsin. “The result was clear: the longer students participate in the ‘Choice Program,’ the better their academic results, on average.”

The Wisconsin report, “A Matter of Time,” found that after two years in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), students, on average, gained the equivalent of 1.35 more years of knowledge relative to a similarly situated student in a public school.

In the statewide Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, gains became significant after three years. Students enrolled for four years or more experienced reading growth equivalent to more than a full additional year of learning compared to comparable public-school students.

The Racine Parental Choice Program also produced strong positive results. Students participating in the Racine Parental Choice Program experienced reading growth nearly equivalent to two additional years of learning compared to similar public-school students.

“Across more than 100,000 Wisconsin students, the evidence points in one direction: time and consistency matter,” the report stated. “Students who remained in Wisconsin’s private school choice programs for several years achieved significantly larger academic gains than similar students who stayed in public schools—and the longer they stayed, the larger the advantage grew.”

The Milwaukee school-choice program began in 1990. The Racine program began in 2011. The statewide Wisconsin Parental Choice Program began in 2013.

Significant academic gains were achieved while school choice programs operated at far lower costs than traditional public schools in Wisconsin.

The average public-school revenue in Wisconsin exceeds voucher funding by more than $5,000 per K-8 student and more than $2,500 per high school student, the report noted, stating that “the achievement gains documented in this report are being reached at a fraction of the cost of an average public school education.”

That is similar to the situation in Oklahoma, where the state’s largest school-choice program, the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit, provides a maximum of $7,500 per child with smaller credits provided to families with incomes exceeding $75,000 annually.

In contrast to the $7,500 maximum for families using that school-choice program, a recent report issued by NEA Research, an arm of the National Education Association teachers’ union, found that Oklahoma public schools had $15,111 in revenue receipts per student, based on average daily attendance, during the 2024-2025 school year, the most recent for which national data was available for all states.

An October 2025 report from the University of Arkansas found similar results in its examination of the performance of school-choice students in that state.

Arkansas’ Education Freedom Accounts program provides families with up to $8,000 for private-school tuition or educational services.

When researchers reviewed 2024-2025 school-year data, they found Arkansas students using the school-choice program scored above the national median on norm-referenced tests.

On average, the report found that Arkansas Education Freedom Account students scored at the 57th percentile in math and 59th percentile in English Language Arts, “meaning they outperformed 57% of students nationwide in math and 59% in ELA on nationally norm-referenced assessments.”

For the 2024–25 school year, each Arkansas Education Freedom Account provided most families with $6,856 per student.

In a July 26 post on X, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote, “Arkansas is putting students first. The results speak for themselves. Education Freedom Account students now outperform 60% of students nationwide in math and English. Education freedom works.”