In 1859, Edwin Drake succeeded in drilling for “rock oil” in Pennsylvania. That same year across the Atlantic, John Stuart Mill published “On Liberty” which, among other things, provided a dire and prescient warning about the dangers of having government run the schooling system:

A general State education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another: and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, a priesthood, an aristocracy, or the majority of the existing generation, in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency to one over the body.

Americans followed up on Drake’s work but ignored Mill’s warning. After an agonizingly long seven decades, Drake’s legacy eventually ended the practice of hunting whales for lamp oil. Rather than encouraging a diverse and pluralistic system of schools, Americans created a public school system characterized by ZIP code assignment, regulatory capture by far left-leaning employee unions, high spending, low academic achievement, and pervasive efforts to “mould” the views of children in disturbing ways. These barbaric and unnecessary practices have persisted even longer than illuminating homes with the remains of whales. Americans are now—at an agonizingly slow pace—correcting the mistake of ignoring Mill by adopting more humane education practices.

America’s disastrous COVID-19 response opened the eyes of millions of parents to the need for self-reliance when it comes to the education of their children. Lawmakers have responded to the demands of families by implementing the solution Mill suggested in 1859: choice in education. In 2025, state lawmakers made a fresh set of major advances for education freedom.

The 2025 state legislative season featured gains of the education freedom movement on multiple fronts—creating new choice programs, improving existing laws, and liberating the families and educators of new states. Lawmakers made major advancements in choice policies:

• Tennessee (new education savings account (ESA) program).
• Idaho (new personal use tax credit).
• Indiana (expanded eligibility for voucher program).
• Louisiana (new ESA program).
• Missouri (expanded tax credit funded ESA).
• New Hampshire (expanded eligibility for ESA program).
• Wyoming (new ESA).
• Perhaps most important of all, Texas joined the fraternity of states providing universal choice to K–12 students.

While the dynamic and innovative Texas private sector continues to attract new residents from across the country, the state’s K–12 system remained mired in public-sector stagnation. Governor Greg Abbott’s tireless advocacy on behalf of the interests of Texas families has made the nearly six million Texas K–12 students eligible to pursue their education outside the district system without forfeiting their share of funding. In 2025, state lawmakers had made half of the students in the United States eligible for a private choice program.

In the first half of the decade, the number of K–12 students benefitting from private school choice more than doubled: Between 2020 and 2025, the number rose from fewer than 600,000 to about 1.2 million. New and expanded choice programs will keep this trend rolling into the second half of the decade and much work lies ahead. Many states use formula funding for their districts but fund their choice programs with waitlist-creating appropriations. Teachers in leading states have left districts behind in frustration to create their own schools, but face barriers, such as municipal zoning and school-certification requirements that put incumbents at an advantage over startups.

Three years into the new era of universal private choice programs, more remains to do than has been done—but Americans are finally making progress toward a more humane system of education.