More states should embrace open enrollment for public schools

As families get ready for the new school year, nearly 22 million students in 23 states can use universal open enrollment laws to choose a traditional public school other than their residentially assigned school. This critically important form of school choice grew during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been adopted in 11 states since 2021.

This year, three states, Iowa, Nebraska, and Vermont, modestly improved their K-12 open enrollment laws, strengthening transparency or making them more family-friendly. However, similar reform attempts in New Hampshire and Tennessee stalled despite passing one legislative chamber.

These setbacks didn’t occur because legislators or school administrators feared that better open enrollment policies would negatively impact students. Instead, opponents worry that the policy is impractical for school districts.

One of the most common objections, but incorrect claims, raised is that open enrollment programs don’t serve low-income students, those who could benefit most from school choice, because transportation isn’t guaranteed to transfer students.

This objection significantly underestimates parents’ determination, regardless of income, to get their children to schools that are the right fit. A 2025 Reason Foundation study found that, on average, more than two in five open enrollment participants, totaling nearly 475,000 students across 10 states studied, were identified as low-income students. In Florida and Ohio, low-income students accounted for 54% of transfer students.

Some states have taken steps to help solve transfer students’ transportation challenges. For example, low-income transfer students in Wisconsin are eligible for a small transportation reimbursement. Similarly, Florida students transferring to public schools in other districts can receive a $750 transportation stipend. In Nevada, an open enrollment program launching this fall provides transportation subsidies to transfer students exiting low-performing public schools.

Open enrollment opponents also argue that giving families choices could force school districts to exceed their capacity, overcrowding classrooms at the best schools. However, this claim ignores the ways most open enrollment policies are designed to avoid this problem.

Open enrollment laws make empty classroom seats available to students from other schools or areas. They do not have to hire new staff or build new facilities to accommodate transfers.

This is because these students fill existing empty seats–a sunk cost for districts. As Timothy Broadrick, the New Hampshire superintendent of Prospect Mountain School District, explained, “The cost of putting a teacher in front of 12 students is no different than the cost of putting that teacher in a room with 18 students. Neither do our heating or electricity costs change with additional children in those seats.”

Moreover, states give school districts significant discretion in defining their capacity. In 14 of the 23 states with universal open enrollment laws, districts set their own definitions of capacity. In the other nine states, districts must consider various criteria for measuring capacity, such as building size and class size.

Other opponents claim that open enrollment policies shortchange school districts because they don’t receive full funding for incoming transfer students. Usually, state education funding follows open enrollment transfer students to their new district. While state funding can vary, especially in states where local funds make up the bulk of the education funding formula, state aid still covers the marginal cost of educating transfer students. Wisconsin’s policy transfers a uniform per-pupil amount of state funds to the receiving district, resulting in $10,102 in state funds per transfer.

Once the costs of adding a transfer student reach a tipping point, such as requiring the hiring of new staff, then the school district has reached its capacity limit. Strong open enrollment policies only admit students up to that tipping point.

Open enrollment laws give public school students important options. Every state that has implemented strong open enrollment policies has seen improvements for the students using the program. More states should look to Colorado, Florida, or the other 21 states that are giving public school students choice and access to more public schools.

A version of this column first appeared in RealClearEducation.

The post More states should embrace open enrollment for public schools appeared first on Reason Foundation.

Source: https://reason.org/commentary/open-enrollment-works-more-states-should-embrace-it/