By the numbers: Florida’s history-making growth of education options

This school year, Florida is empowering half a million students to direct funding to education options of their family’s choice. 

In the 2023-24 school year, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1, Florida saw the largest single-year expansion of education choice scholarships in U.S. history. That growth continued in 2024-25.  

Florida’s education choice scholarship programs have grown steadily over the past decade. *Numbers for the 2024-25 school years are preliminary. In 2022, the McKay Scholarship and Unique abilities programs merged. 

The numbers look like this: 

• The Florida Tax Credit Scholarships or Family Empowerment Scholarships for Educational Options have enabled nearly 344,000 students to cover the cost of private school tuition. These families can use any remaining funds for other eligible educational expenses.  

• Family Empowerment Scholarships for Students with Unique Abilities have enabled over 123,000 students with special needs to customize their education.  

• The Personalized Education Program has reached its statutory capacity of 60,000 students for the school year, tripling in size since its 2023-24 debut. These scholarships allow students who do not attend public or private school full-time to fully customize their education. 

 With more than 500,000 K-12 students participating in some type of full-time education savings account, Florida is home to nearly 7 of every 10 students using such programs nationwide.  

 If the students using these programs in Florida counted as a school district, it would be the largest in the state and third-largest in the country, trailing only New York and Los Angeles.
 

Add it all up, and half a million Florida students will direct funding from a state-supported program to access a learning option of their family’s choice. This is a milestone 25 years in the making.