Black, white, Hispanic; Republicans, Democrats. All support public-school choice, according to a new poll. Full results here.
Earlier this year, the Florida Legislature pursued an expansion of public school choice, but the effort fell apart in the waning days of the legislative session.
A new national survey suggests the public strongly supports such a concept.
Nearly two-thirds of parents surveyed by Phi Delta Kappan and Gallup said they support allowing people to choose the schools their children attend "regardless of where they live." Support crosses different political and racial lines, though blacks and Republicans are slightly more supportive than whites and Democrats.
Of course, polls like this should be read with caution. For one thing, it's a national survey, and lots of education policy is set at the state or local level. (more…)
Perhaps not surprisingly, recent polls by two education organizations – one in support of, and the other skeptical of, school choice – report considerable differences in public opinion on school choice. The PDK/Gallup poll finds 70 percent of the public is opposed to vouchers while EducationNext finds only 37 percent of the public is opposed. While there’s always danger in reading too much into surveys produced by advocacy groups, the EducationNext methodology is cleaner and its finding therefore more likely to be on the mark.
There are two main issues with the PDK/Gallup poll’s voucher question:
1) The voucher question response options are limited to “oppose” or “support” while many other questions allow responders to be “somewhat” supportive/opposed or “completely” supportive/opposed. Not allowing multiple levels of support, opposition or neutrality may be influencing responses.
2) The use of the word “expense” in the voucher poll question may negatively color responses. In fact, it’s not used ever again; not even for questions on potential new programs (Table 26 and 45).
