by Brendan Clarey
A fresh national poll shows that a majority of Americans support school choice measures that would allow families to employ taxpayer funds to attend private school.
Central Square voter poll conducted by Noble Predictive Insights found that more than two-thirds of the more than 2,200 likely voters surveyed support providing families with choice using public funds.
The poll found that 69% of likely voters said they supported a federal tax credit program that would allow students to attend the school of their choice, including private school. Only 20% of voters said students “should attend the schools they were assigned to.”
David Byler, head of research at Noble Predictive Insights, told The Center Square that the question tests how voters respond to the conservative argument for school choice, charter schools or what are sometimes referred to as school vouchers or education savings accounts (ESAs). ).
“It says, ‘What do you think about choice in education?’ And it turns out that the message there actually works quite well.
Byler found that even across political parties, the percentage of voters supporting school choice initiatives is surprisingly high.
“If you look at the party crosstabs, you can see that Republican support is very high and there is some support among Democrats, making it a classic wedge issue where one party is united and the other party is divided.”
Among Republicans, 77% said they supported a federal school choice program, while 62% of Democrats said yes to 27% who said students should attend the school to which they are assigned.
The poll found that true independents were least enthused by the federal school choice program, although 60% of likely independent voters approved and 24% said they believed students should be assigned to their schools.
Byler said the response from Democratic voters illustrates the division in the party and where Republicans and Democrats can unite.
“There is something of a pro-reform wing among Democrats. You saw this a lot under Obama, where one side was open to things like charter schools, open to measures that had those kinds of reform roots,” Byler said.
“And there was a separate side, more teacher union-oriented and more traditionalist, that says we don’t necessarily need changes in how we send students to schools or what schools they are sent to,” Byler said.
“Republicans like the idea of more choice, of unleashing some kind of market forces in schools,” Byler said. “They can find allies on the Democratic side who may not be so much for the idea of markets but for the idea of reform, who might be able to meet them halfway.
“And then you also have some Democrats who are a little more traditionalist in their views on education and what it takes to make changes and improvements. And that’s what this test checks,” Byler said.
Byler said asking voters whether school choice would weaken public schools would better illustrate what voters think about Democratic-led school funding issues.
“That is Democrats’ strongest message — the idea that some form of school choice will ultimately lead to lower quality or fewer resources for public schools,” Byler said.
Ultimately, Byler said voters want schools to teach students the best they can.
“At the end of the day, people want schools to work, for society to be open to messages from both sides that seem to be moving toward the goal of making the education system work,” Byler said.
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Brendan Clarey is a contributor Central Square.
