Good morning,
While policymakers, families, and taxpayers can easily learn how many students are enrolled in private school scholarship programs or charter schools, the same can’t be said for students who use K-12 open enrollment programs, which let students transfer to traditional public schools other than their assigned ones.
A new Reason Foundation report reviews the current open enrollment data collected and shows how to improve transparency for parents and lawmakers. Most states don’t require state education agencies (SEAs) to collect or publish data on open enrollment. Only 13 states require their education agencies to collect data on the number of students using their open enrollment programs.
Even fewer states require agencies to collect school district-level data showing the number of denied transfer applicants and why those students were rejected. In some cases, SEAs collect these data but aren’t required to publicly publish their findings on their websites.
Only three states, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wisconsin, meet Reason Foundation’s robust transparency best-practices recommendations. However, even Oklahoma could do more to improve its open enrollment transparency reports.
This data dearth is a problem for parents looking for public schools and policymakers looking to improve their laws. Thorough open enrollment reports, like Wisconsin’s, can inform policymakers, families, and taxpayers about how school districts need to improve.
For instance, families can use these reports to hold school districts accountable for their open enrollment practices, especially districts that may reject transfer applicants, such as students with disabilities, at high rates.
Plus, open enrollment data can show how students use the transfer programs and how open enrollment can help school districts attract students and improve.
For instance, the latest data from Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, and Colorado showed that more than 658,000 students used open enrollment to attend traditional public schools other than their assigned ones.
Figure 1: Open Enrollment Transfers in Select States
In these cases, approximately 10% of students in traditional public schools used open enrollment. However, 28% of Colorado’s public school students transferred to public schools other than their assigned ones.
Additionally, this data revealed that students tended to transfer to schools in better-ranked school districts.
While urban and suburban school districts generally attract the most transfers, thousands of students also transferred to rural school districts in these states. Notably, 31% of Wisconsin’s cross-district transfer students chose rural schools.
These findings are consistent with a 2021 report published by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, which found that small and rural school districts used open enrollment to bolster their enrollment. The per-student funding that comes with transfer students can help these school districts remain fiscally solvent, especially if the school district is experiencing declining enrollment.
Unfortunately, many states, such as Georgia, don’t even require their SEAs to collect the data showcased here. This leaves the public in the dark about how open enrollment affects them, helps students, and the programs’ impacts on school districts.
In 2023, at least three states codified proposals that require SEAs to collect open enrollment data.
This year, proposals in at least four states that would have required SEAs to collect open enrollment data were introduced but weren’t signed into law.
State policymakers should ensure that their open enrollment laws are bolstered by robust transparency provisions to ensure that policymakers, taxpayers, and families can make informed decisions about open enrollment.
From the states
Texas policymakers prepare for the 2025 legislative session.
In Texas, the House Public Education Committee met to discuss private school choice efforts backed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Republican Chairman Brad Buckley said, “Parents have the ultimate power when they make a school choice decision. And they’re the ones that can decide whether or not the school is meeting the needs of their kids,” the Dallas Morning News reported.
What to watch
Florida’s Personalized Education Program, an education savings account administered through the state’s tax-credit scholarship program, expanded so up to 60,000 students can receive scholarships during the 2024-45 school year. So far, 81% of the nearly 40,000 applications submitted have been approved. Already, this is a 64% increase in participation in the program compared to last school year. Eligible applicants, like homeschooled students, cannot be full-time students at public or private schools.
A circuit court judge denied Arkansas’ attorney general’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit arguing that the state’s private school choice program is unconstitutional. The lawsuit claims that the program, codified under the LEARNS Act in 2023, violates the state constitution since it diverts funds from their intended purposes and uses public funds for unauthorized or illegal purposes. To date, more than 16,000 students applied for these scholarships for the 2024-25 school year.
Kentucky’s Pulaski County Board of Education faces scrutiny after posting information on its website urging voters to oppose an upcoming ballot initiative this fall, which would amend the state constitution to make private school choice programs legal. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) accused the school district of breaking the law and engaging in electioneering. Amendment 2, the upcoming ballot initiative, is a contentious issue. In 2021, the state legislature overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto, codifying a tax-credit scholarship program. But, in 2022, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that the program was unconstitutional. Amendment 2 aims to resolve the issue.
The Latest from Reason Foundation
—Rural West Virginia families embrace open enrollment
The state’s latest data shows large numbers of rural students using open enrollment, helping debunk the myth that open enrollment only benefits urban and suburban school districts.
—Oklahoma now has the best open enrollment policy in the country
The state’s 2024 updates to its open enrollment law make it better than policies in other top-scoring states, including Florida, Arizona, and Idaho.
—Arkansas K-12 education finance series: Adequacy review findings and recommendations so far
In the final installment of a three-part series, Reason’s Christian Barnard examines the details of Arkansas’ education funding system and how to improve it.
Recommended reading
Why Markets Matter in Education
Michael Q. McShane at The Show-Me Institute
“Markets offer three mechanisms that facilitate school choice. First, they allow for a level of diversity in school offerings that traditional, centrally managed school systems are not able to. Second, they encourage competition between providers, improving the quality of school options for students and families. Third, markets are incredible information gathering institutions, and a more market driven system can help bring attention to better educational practices and ways to meet family needs that can then be copied by other schools.”
For Microschools, ‘Location Has Been the Hardest Thing.’ Florida Made It Easier
Greg Toppo at The74
“But policymakers are also realizing that if microschools are to thrive, they can’t be regulated the same as larger schools, Hoffman said. ‘They’re only serving 30, 40, maybe 50 families. They’re not serving hundreds of families. The size of the buildings that are necessary, the land that’s necessary, is not going to be the same.’”
Researchers: Higher Special Education Funding Not Tied to Better Outcomes
Beth Hawkins at The74
“From state to state, diagnoses are wildly inconsistent, raising questions about the subjectivity of how students are funneled into special ed. New Mexico, for example, diagnoses specific learning disabilities in 8% of students, versus less than 3% in Kentucky and Idaho. However, despite identifying a high number of children with learning disorders, New Mexico has some of the lowest literacy rates among special education students in the country.”