By Kathryn Hickok
This month Wyoming became the 15th state to give students universal school choice. Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, any K-12 child in Wyoming may apply for an Education Savings Account of $7,000 per student. The new law also includes preschool children from low-income families.
The Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act allocates $30 million to Education Savings Accounts that will initially serve about 4,000 students. Education Savings Account programs allow parents to use a defined amount of funding on behalf of their children for education-related expenses like school tuition and fees, classes, tutoring, textbooks, and transportation.
Wyoming’s new ESA law will empower parents to choose the educational environments that best help their children succeed. When parents have choices, students have more opportunities for their individual learning needs and goals to be met. Every child should have access to an effective, meaningful, and empowering education. Wyoming has taken a major step to make that happen.
Kathryn Hickok is Executive Vice President at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization, and Director of Cascade’s Children’s Scholarship Fund-Oregon program.
