School choice policies help families access schools other than their residentially assigned traditional public school. Private school choice policies, which provide students with public funds to choose a private educational setting, have made much progress across the United States in recent years.
The latest growth in choice comes from universal school choice programs—publicly funded private school scholarship programs with universal eligibility. To date, 18 states have legislated or launched some form of a universal education savings account (ESA) program. In addition to state-run programs, 31 states have opted into the national Education Freedom Tax Credit program, which offers dollar-for-dollar tax credits for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, credits of up to $1,700 per taxpayer.
School choice needs both parents and schools. Parents want choices for where to send their children; these programs help fund the demand for choice signaled by parents. On the other end, schools and other education service providers must be willing to accept those students and take their scholarship dollars.
Legislatures have built the programs. But will the schools come?
Many private school leaders are extremely concerned about what participating in such programs might mean for their school’s future: If we begin accepting public dollars, will we invite greater government scrutiny? Will the state attach greater regulations to these programs in the future? What will happen to scholarship families if the funds go away? My own research with Eric Price and Lynn Swaner found that private Christian schools are very open to participating, but also very concerned, particularly about any regulations that may affect their faith-based mission.
Participation Patterns: Eager or Hesitant?
My Kennesaw State University colleagues Ben Scafidi and Roger Tutterow, Damian Kavanagh of MISBO, and I researched the supply side of school choice programs. Our findings were published in the Journal of School Choice. We addressed these questions: When relevant choice programs are available, which types of private schools choose to participate? When a program launches, how quickly do these schools come?
We surveyed 473 private school leaders across 31 of 36 states with private school choice programs. These leaders represented member schools of MISBO, the Association of Christian Schools International, and other organizations, both secular and religious. Descriptively, 174 leaders (37%) indicated that their school does not participate even though a program is available to them. Among the 299 leaders (63%) whose schools participate, 43% reported that their school began participating in the program’s launch year. Many schools waited up to 10 years or more to begin participating in a program.
How are the schools that participate different from the ones that don’t? In our regression analysis, we found that religious schools are 9-11 points more likely to participate than nonreligious schools. Schools with enrollment below 250 students are 14 points less likely to participate. Tuition, on the other hand, is inversely related to participation: schools charging more than $20,000 were 33 points less likely to participate.
Which schools participate right away and which schools wait and see? While 43% of schools participate in a relevant program at launch, on average we found that schools wait a little more than 2 years to participate. Religious schools wait about 1.4 years longer, about 4 years after launch.
Reflections for Christian Schools
Recent scholarship on private Christian schools and their participation in school choice programs tells a coherent story. Christian school leaders are focused on delivering a rigorous academic program taught from a biblical worldview and integrated with spiritual formation. Indeed, parents demand both academics and spiritual formation when choosing a Christian school. To that end, Christian school leaders are highly sensitive to any distractions or regulations that would steer them off mission.
Our recent study showed that religious schools are eager to participate in choice programs, no doubt because these programs help make their schools accessible to more families. Again, religious schools were between 9-11 percentage points more likely to participate than nonreligious private schools in our sample.
Yet, religious schools are unwilling to participate if opting in comes at the cost of compromising their mission. This position is evidenced in religious school leaders’ patiently (and perhaps prudently) waiting before participating. As J. Gresham Machen once testified before Congress, “Money given for education, no matter what people say, always has a string tied to it.”
Policymakers would be wise to consider these concerns. After all, three-fourths of private schools in the U.S. have a religious mission. The success of these school choice programs depends on the supply of schools, and religious school leaders won’t participate if they fear that the policies may regulate their mission. A burdensome regulatory regime will cause a significant supply of schools to wait years before participating, or worse, keep them out altogether.
