For years, school-choice opponents have dismissed the idea that Oklahoma parents want additional options for their children’s education aside from the geographically closest public school. As evidence, those activists have repeatedly suggested that only about one in 20 Oklahoma students is educated outside a traditional public school.

But public data, while inexact, suggest the true number of Oklahoma children whose families are embracing some form of school choice may now be nearly one in four—and that figure is likely to increase over time.

The enrollment total for Oklahoma’s public schools is easy to come by—697,358 children were enrolled in Oklahoma’s public schools in the 2024-2025 school year. Of that total, 660,650 children were enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade, while the remainder were in pre-K programs.

The same is not true for some forms of school choice, particularly homeschooling, where hard numbers are more difficult to come by, and data for other forms of school choice can lag by one to two years.

School Choice in Oklahoma Is No Longer a Niche

Even so, information from several public sources indicates that nearly one in four school-age children in Oklahoma may now be educated in an environment other than the geographically closest school, whether through homeschooling, public charter schools, open transfer into another traditional school district, or private school.

According to the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board’s latest report, 17,681 students were attending a brick-and-mortar charter school in the 2023-2024 school year and 33,796 who attended a virtual charter school.

According to the Oklahoma State Department of Education, there were another 36,629 students who successfully used the open-transfer process to attend a traditional public-school district other than the one geographically closest to them in the last 12 months.

Solid numbers for homeschooling are particularly hard to come by, but U.S. Census surveys provide some indication.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey Phase 4.1 Cycle 7 School Enrollment Type report, which is based on data collected from June 25 to July 22, 2024, an estimated 46,070 children were being homeschooled in Oklahoma.

As of July 2, there were another 37,951 children approved for the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program that helps families afford private school.

There were also 1,557 children who attended private school in the 2023-2024 school year (the most recent for which data is available) thanks to the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship for Students with Disabilities program, which serves children with special needs.

When all those forms of school choice are combined—homeschool, private school, charter school, and open transfer—they total, roughly, more than 173,000 students statewide. Since Census data indicate there are 728,980 youth between the ages of five and 18 in Oklahoma, that suggests nearly 24 percent of the total number of youth between the ages of five and 18 may be using school choice in Oklahoma today.

That’s well above the figures cited by opponents of school choice.

In March, state Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, declared in a column that “95 percent of students remain in public schools.”

In April 2023, House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson of Oklahoma City tossed out the same figure during a legislative committee meeting, saying, “House and Senate Democrats have chosen to prioritize public school students and teachers because 95 percent of Oklahomans make the choice to attend a public school.”

In a 2019 TV interview, then-Oklahoma Education Association President Alicia Priest declared that “public schools serve between 90 and 95 percent of the children of Oklahoma.”

However, the enrollment total for public schools is misleading as a measure of parental support for local schools (or opposition to school choice) since it includes thousands of students enrolled in public charter schools or those who used the open-transfer process to attend a school without living within its boundaries.

Put simply, the enrollment figures referenced by school-choice opponents include numerous families who have embraced school choice and have proactively chosen to send their child to a school other than the geographically closest traditional public school.

In reality, the share of Oklahoma students whose families “choose” to enroll in the geographically closest public school may be 76 percent—not 95 percent.

And today’s figures may be only a hint of things to come.

Florida, Arizona May Offer a Glimpse of Oklahoma’s Future

In Florida, which has had school choice programs in place for many years, a majority of students are now being educated in a setting other than the geographically nearest traditional public school.

Similarly, a March 2025 report from The Common Sense Institute found similar trends in Arizona, which has also been a national leader in school-choice opportunity with numerous programs in place for years. The institute’s report noted, “About half of all Arizona K-12 students are today enrolled in choice schools—Charters, private- and home-schools, or open-enrolled District students.”

“When state leaders give families options, that fuels demand, and educators find ways to meet it,” said Patrick Gibbons, senior manager of policy and public affairs for Step Up For Students, an organization that helps Florida families access the best possible learning options for their children. “This results in new and better learning options for students, more opportunities to unleash the passion and creativity of teachers, and a virtuous cycle that shows no sign of slowing down.”

Gibbons noted that school choice opportunities have been gradually increasing in Florida for decades now and are the result of “sustained efforts” over time, starting in the 1990s. Reform began under both a Democrat governor (Lawton Chiles in the 1990s) and a Republican (Jeb Bush from 1999 to 2007) in Florida and continues today. Current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently championed and achieved the expansion of private-school choice to all families in the state.

Oklahoma has not matched Florida and Arizona when it comes to the share of students using school-choice options, but the trendline is expected to rise in the coming years as more private schools open or expand thanks to the state’s Parental Choice Tax Credit, as open enrollment continues to increase among traditional districts, and as charter schools and homeschooling continue to progress.

Once again, data from Florida and Arizona may forecast future trends in Oklahoma. In both states, the number of providers and/or the number of students served by existing private schools has steadily increased over time as school-choice opportunities expanded.

As school-choice programs bloomed in Florida, so did the number of providers. A recent report by Step Up for Students noted that the number of Florida private schools increased by 31 percent over a decade.

“Between 2012-13 and 2022-23, according to the most recent state data, the number of private schools in Florida grew from 2,267 to 2,973,” the report stated. “That’s a net gain of 706 new private schools, or 31%, over the course of a decade.”

And growth has occurred even in rural areas that school-choice opponents routinely claim cannot support private schools.

“Rustic Renaissance: Education Choice in Rural America,” a 2023 report from The Heritage Foundation, found that the number of rural students served by Arizona’s private schools steadily increased as school-choice policies made private school viable for more families.

The report found that rural student enrollment in private schools doubled over an eight-year period in four large rural counties for which data were available for both the 2021–2022 and 2013–2014 academic years.

While Oklahoma has not had robust school-choice policies in place as long as Florida and Arizona, it has largely caught up with those two states on the policy front. Oklahoma was recently ranked among the 10 best states nationwide for parental empowerment and educational choice by the 2025 Parent Power! Index released by the Center for Education Reform.

One legislative opponent of school choice has openly conceded that many families do not actively “choose” to send their children to the geographically nearest traditional public school but are instead limited to that single option by circumstances.

In February 2023, then state Rep. Regina Goodwin, a Tulsa Democrat who is now a state senator, conceded that many families were then sending their children to traditional public schools because they had no other viable choice.

“The everyday person really can’t afford that (private-school tuition). That’s why they go to public schools,” Goodwin said. “So, it’s not like they’re choosing to go to a public school. It’s like they wanted their folks to be educated. The school is in the neighborhood. It’s free. Would you agree that’s probably why most folks, probably 90 percent of our children, go to public schools—because it’s there and it’s free?”

Polling indicates many Oklahoma families would prefer to educate their child in a setting other than the nearest traditional public school if finances and other considerations were not a challenge.

A rolling 12-month online poll sponsored by EdChoice and developed in cooperation with Morning Consult shows that just 40 percent of Oklahoma parents would choose a traditional public school as the best option for their child’s education.

The poll found 34 percent preferred private school, 14 percent would homeschool, and 6 percent would choose a charter school.

Seventy-four percent of Oklahoma parents in the survey supported voucher programs that allow them to use tax dollars to pay private-school tuition.

Matthew Ladner, senior advisor for K-12 policy implementation at The Heritage Foundation, noted that in Arizona the traditional public schools were gradually forced to compete for students as more families had access to private schools, charter schools, and other options. That led to an explosion of public schools accepting open-transfer applications, taking students from other districts who were previously denied that opportunity.

Data indicate open transfer could increase in Oklahoma along with private-school enrollment, charter-school growth, and homeschooling. The Oklahoma State Department of Education reports that 5,836 students were denied open-transfer admission by the receiving school district.

“You will know your choice systems have arrived when your fancy school districts start participating in open enrollment,” Ladner said. “Scottsdale Unified in Arizona has almost a fifth of their enrollment from out of district, for example. This crucial step in effect transforms high-demand district schools into choice operators, forcing charter and private options to up their games.”