Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) offer parents a publicly funded, government-authorized savings account they can draw on for certain K-12 educational expenses. As these programs have expanded in recent years, they have become a flashpoint in education policy debates. For some, ESAs are an extension of existing private school choice programs’ potential to help families seek alternatives to the public school system. For others, they undermine the public education system by siphoning funding from community institutions. 

But these arguments often oversimplify or misrepresent key details about how ESAs work — which students are eligible, how much funding they receive, what kinds of expenses the programs can pay for — and the evidence of their impact to date.  

Public Money, Private Choice: The Components and Critiques of Education Savings Accounts aims to establish a common fact base about ESA programs that can inform all sides of the policy debate. How have ESAs emerged in state policy, and how are they designed? What are the common critiques of ESAs, and what evidence is available to evaluate them? What do other government programs that provide payments directly to families reveal about the design of ESAs? 

This report is part of Bellwether’s “stocktaking” series that helps leaders, policymakers, and education advocates separate signal from noise on some of today’s most pressing education issues.