In our highly polarized two-party landscape, removing one flawed party from power simply means tolerating the other. Neither side has a strong record in defending liberty—and too often opposes it—and as a result, the post-election period could bring notable losses to freedom in education policy, unless the victors rethink their entrenched positions. One arena where liberty may retreat after the vote is school choice.
Freshly Elected and Set to Limit Education Freedom
In Texas, the incoming Democratic governor-elect Gina Hinojosa told supporters that they would work tirelessly to repair the damage of the so-called “Texas voucher scam,” and to bring an end to an era in which schools are treated as little more than commodities to be sold off.
The so-called “Texas voucher scam” she referenced refers to the state’s 2025 adoption of education savings accounts (ESA), which began operating this school year. Families can apply a portion of the education funds allotted to their child toward options beyond the often rigid and subpar public schools. “Most participants will receive an account value of around $10,500 ($30,000 for students with special needs). Homeschooled students may participate, but their accounts are capped at $2,000,” according to EdChoice.
The Texas Education Agency notes that per-student funding in the state runs a bit over $15,000. The ESA program promises savings for taxpayers while expanding choices for participating families who want to leave government schools but lack the means to cover tuition and related costs on top of the taxes they already owe to the state.
Texas isn’t alone in this experiment. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that “eighteen states have established ESA programs. Two states have multiple ESA programs: Florida has two programs and Tennessee has three programs.”
ESAs aren’t just popular with lawmakers; families like them too. According to the Texas state government, “over 100,000 awards have been made” in the first year of the program’s existence.
ESAs are also widespread in Arizona, where the state Department of Education reports that 109,762 students currently participate in a program that began in 2011.
“About two-thirds (65%) of ESA students have scholarships between $7,000 and $8,000, while students with special needs receive significantly more depending on their specific disabilities,” EdChoice notes about the Grand Canyon State program. Yet Gov. Katie Hobbs, whose Democrats recently gained full control of the state legislature, promises to renew efforts to deny choice to families and children.
“In her first State of the State speech in 2023, she sought to repeal universal vouchers entirely,” Capitol Media Services reported when Hobbs criticized ESAs after this week’s elections. When that failed, she pursued tactics such as “means-testing of families: denying vouchers to children in homes where parents earn more than $200,000 a year. And she sought greater oversight of purchases made by parents who home-school their children.”
School Choice Has Limited Democratic Support, Yet Broad Public Backing
Regrettably, this pattern is typical. For years, school choice has been a largely partisan battleground, with Republicans backing options for families and Democrats aiming to funnel students into government schools and restrict alternatives.
There are exceptions. As mayor of Newark, Sen. Cory Booker (D–N.J.) championed publicly funded, privately run charter schools. A presidential hopeful in 2019, Booker chided fellow partisans, writing that “the treatment by many Democratic politicians of high-performing public charter schools as boogeymen has undermined the fact that many of these schools are serving low-income urban children across the country in ways that are inclusive, equitable, publicly accountable and locally driven.”
Unfortunately, while some Democrats have warmed to the idea of choice in education, too many, like Hobbs and Hinojosa, are dead set against letting families spurn state-run institutions in favor of private alternatives and DIY educational approaches.
Polling by EdChoice finds 59 percent of Americans support school vouchers, 63 percent favor charter schools, and 67 percent back ESAs. The numbers are higher among parents of school-age children.
In Texas, 66 percent of adults and 76 percent of parents favor ESAs, nearly identical to Arizona numbers.
Yet the top Democrats in these states immediately attacked these popular programs as soon as they could push their preferred policies. The hostility to education freedom clearly appears divorced from popular support and instead reflects a doctrinal stance that serves as a litmus test for political identity on the left. It’s a piece of unpopular anti-freedom ideology that too many Democrats cling to even as they celebrate election wins fueled by Republican alienation of millions of voters.
“A system of school choice where ‘the money follows the child’ is one of the most powerful student-centered levers available, and it can help reinvent American education,” argues Jorge Elorza of Democrats for Education Reform. “Progressives who continue to ignore this powerful tool are failing to embrace a 21st-century vision of public education, and they are denying students the academic and civic benefits that follow.”
Democrats Confront a Federal Tax Credits Challenge
In January 2027, the federal government’s Education Freedom Tax Credits are set to take effect. They provide “up to $1,700 per individual (up to $3,400 for married couples filing jointly) for qualified cash contributions to a Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO).” SGOs offer scholarships that students can use to cover education expenses much like ESAs and existing state tax-credit programs.
BallotPedia notes that “32 states had indicated that they would participate in the program.” Most of these states were under Republican control. Democratic Govs. Jared Polis of Colorado, Kathy Hochul of New York, and Michelle Lujan Grisham opted in. Lawmakers in Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina overrode Democratic governors’ vetoes to ensure their states’ participation in the tax-credit program.
Senate Democrats, even before the midterms, introduced a bill to repeal federal tax credits. Politico’s Mackenzie Wilkes explains that Democrats oppose the program because “teachers unions hate it” and that this influential bloc wants to keep its captive audience of students in public schools.
Wilkes adds that “governors are also under pressure from parents who want the funds, which they can use to get extra help with their children’s education or allow students to attend the school of their choice.”
The question for Democrats, who just won an election by appealing to voters who felt ignored by Republicans, is whether they want to cater to a party base that seeks to confine children to government schools or to serve those children and the voters who overwhelmingly support school choice.
