West Virginia, Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, and now, Alabama. What do these states have in common?

School choice for all.

Alabama recently became the first state in 2024 to adopt education savings accounts, the most popular form of school choice. The state enacted the Creating Hope & Opportunity for Our Students’ Education (CHOOSE) Act. “We all want every Alabama student – no matter the zip code, no matter the school – to receive a quality education,” Gov. Kay Ivey said in her press release.

Families in state after state are walking through new open doors to education options. Why are Michigan families being left behind?

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed education savings account legislation two and a half years ago, in November 2021.

That proposal would have given participating families control of flexible education spending accounts to personalize their children’s learning. Parents would have been able to use those funds to defray the cost of textbooks, school uniforms, test prep classes, occupational and speech therapies, school-based athletic activities, tuition for dual-enrollment courses — and yes, tuition at a private school, if they chose.

The children receiving this support would have been those who needed it the most: students with disabilities or in the foster care system and kids from low-income families.

One poll at the time of Whitmer’s veto showed 80% support for the measure among Michigan residents. Support is still strong today, with 69% of Michigan adults and 78% of school parents strongly or somewhat strongly supporting ESAs, according to a recent EdChoice poll of more than 900 adults and 480 parents.

The Mackinac Center’s analysis of the 2021 legislation showed that it would have had minimal fiscal impact on state and local school budgets, while providing widespread benefits to students. It was a popular, fiscally responsible, bottom-up approach to addressing COVID learning loss in 2021. The same is true today.

As Ivey emphasized in her statement about Alabama’s new CHOOSE Act, school choice programs don’t require relaxing a commitment to quality public education. Twenty percent of states have opened the doors to broad educational freedom, creating school choice programs without eligibility restrictions. Twice as many states have offered choice to at least some students and families.

Michigan lawmakers should put our state on the same path.

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