Report Misrepresents the Impact of Vouchers and ESAs on Public School Finances

BOULDER, CO (September 4, 2025)—In his review of Fiscal Factbook: 2025 Edition, authored by the Fiscal Research and Education Center of EdChoice, Rutgers University lecturer Mark Weber highlights several ways the report falls short of providing credible support for its conclusions.

As enrollment in school privatization programs grows, right-wing ideological think tanks such as EdChoice have continued to argue that school vouchers and education savings accounts (ESAs) strengthen public school finances. Its Fiscal Factbook purports to find that voucher programs do not harm public school finances. The data presented in the report, however, fail to support its assertion.

Specifically, Weber shows that the report relies on weak data and flawed analyses to support its central arguments:

  • that vouchers and ESAs save taxpayers money;
  • that public schools benefit financially when they lose students to such programs; and
  • that per-pupil public school funding has increased substantially during the expansion of voucher programs. 

Weber finds that the report uses an inappropriate inflation adjuster and then calculates meaningless correlations between nationwide spending levels and voucher program expansion. He points out that it is wide variation among states, along with many other factors, that drives education costs.

Weber concludes that the report’s reliance on meaningless comparisons between voucher program expenditures and public school spending, and its omission of differences in student demographics and academic outcomes, result in meaningless cost analyses. These shortcomings make the EdChoice Fiscal Factbook useless as a basis for sound school funding policymaking.

(Note: The report is published by the Fiscal Research and Education Center (FERC) of EdChoice, but it does not list specific authors. The FERC website lists only one staffer: “Martin Lueken, Director of Fiscal Research & Education Center.”)

Find the review, by Mark Weber, at:
https://nepc.colorado.edu/review/fiscal-factbook

Find Fiscal Factbook: 2025 Edition, published by EdChoice, at: https://www.edchoice.org/research/2025-fiscal-factbook/

 

NEPC Reviews (https://nepc.colorado.edu/reviews) provide the public, policymakers, and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected publications. NEPC Reviews are made possible in part by support provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice: http://www.greatlakescenter.org

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, sponsors research, produces policy briefs, and publishes expert third-party reviews of think tank reports. NEPC publications are written in accessible language and are intended for a broad audience that includes academic experts, policymakers, the media, and the general public. Our mission is to provide high-quality information in support of democratic deliberation about education policy. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence and support a multiracial society that is inclusive, kind, and just. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu

Top