Patrick Graff, Senior Fellow at the American Federation for Children, said on March 18 that research from Florida demonstrates school choice programs can deliver student benefits and cost-efficient gains for public schools, suggesting Georgia should expand its own initiatives.
The topic is significant as states consider how best to allocate education funding and support student achievement. According to Dr. Patrick Graff’s comments following an American Federation for Children release, new Florida-based research synthesized about two decades of evidence and found that expanding private school choice in Florida produced measurable benefits for both scholarship recipients and students who remained in public schools. Graff pointed to Georgia as a state positioned to apply those findings through expanded school choice policies.
“This research from Florida is clear: investing in school choice not only provided life-changing opportunity for those students who received scholarships, but it also was an extraordinarily cost-efficient way to improve outcomes for children in traditional public schools through competition. More than two dozen candidates across the state have signed the Georgia School Choice Pledge. This promises support for expanding school choice in Georgia to bring those benefits to all Georgia students,” Graff said.
The Florida research cited by the American Federation for Children found competitive effects from private school choice were about 11 times more cost-effective than equivalent increases in public-school spending. The organization said the analysis used conservative assumptions and included a methodology appendix to allow for independent replication. That cost-effectiveness framing underpins Graff’s argument that school choice can function as both a family empowerment tool and a scalable, efficient education policy.
Georgia has existing statewide programs such as the Georgia Promise Scholarship, which provides eligible K–12 students with up to $6,500 annually for private tuition or other approved expenses. The Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit program served 19,516 students during the 2022–23 year, while the Special Needs Scholarship served 5,788 students according to the American Federation for Children.
Graff advises on policy design and research at AFC.The American Federation for Children describes itself as a national advocacy group focused on expanding K–12 education options through policy advocacy and outreach.
