The Education Freedom Index measures the extent of government-subsidized or -regulated educational choices offered to families in each state. The author also analyzes the relationship between the amount of education freedom in a state and the level of academic achievement demonstrated by its students.
Specifically, this report finds that:
- Arizona offers parents the most educational freedom, followed by New Jersey, Delaware and Florida. Hawaii offers the least educational freedom, followed by Utah, Rhode Island and West Virginia;
- Academic achievement is positively correlated with educational freedom. Indeed, if a state could improve its Education Freedom Index Score by one point, we would expect that an additional 4.1% of its students would perform proficiently on the NAEP math test.
