despite the availability of choice programs stretching from Maine to Florida to Nevada, participation hasn’t taken off. On average less than 3% of eligible students actually sign up for school choice after 10 years, according to another study by Lueken.

Why such low participation? Wolf says parents are cautious when it comes to their child’s education and will only switch to a private option when they are convinced that it will produce a better academic or social outcome. And many families are simply unaware of the availability of choice programs, according to surveys.

The upshot is that, despite the political acrimony around school choice, it’s not yet eroding public schools’ funding. Although teachers unions repeatedly make that claim in opposing school choice laws, a significant student exodus from public schools has yet to materialize.

“The notion that choice harms public schools by draining resources from them doesn’t hold water,” Lueken says. “If choice harms students who remain in public schools, then we would expect to see outcomes diminish for those students after choice enters the picture. But that’s not the case.”

Choice programs in some cases appear to benefit public schools. The competition for students that choice programs create has produced small improvements in public school achievement, according to a 2019 meta-analysis of 92 studies, perhaps by prompting administrators to make changes in instruction.