Latest Edu‐​Polling: Americans Want Much More Freedom

pa href=https://www.cato.org/people/colleen-hroncich hreflang=enColleen Hroncich/a/p pWhat does public opinion about school look like midway through the “a href=https://www.educationnext.org/how-big-was-the-year-of-educational-choice/ rel=noreferrer noopener target=_blankyear of educational choice/a”? According to new polling from a href=https://www.edchoice.org/what-we-do/research/schooling-in-america-polling-dashboard-2/ rel=noreferrer noopener target=_blankEdChoice/a, support for education choice remains high./p pInterestingly, the highest support is for the most flexible form of choice—education savings accounts (ESAs). An overwhelming 84% of parents and 78% of the general public support ESAs, which are taxpayer‐​funded accounts that can be used for many approved educational expenses beyond just private school tuition./p p div data-embed-button=image data-entity-embed-display=view_mode:media.blog_post data-entity-type=media data-entity-uuid=3e4f2375-f874-4925-b843-0e2b46a99742 class=align-center embedded-entity data-langcode=en img width=518 height=328 alt=Support for forms of school choice class=lozad image-style-pubs-2x component-image loading=lazy data-src=/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2021-09/Hron%20Fig%201.png?itok=PHtgtVIp typeof=Image //div /ppThe strong support for choice shouldn’t be surprising given another finding from the survey: there’s a tremendous mismatch between the type of education parents would prefer and what they’re utilizing. While nearly 75% of parents reported that their children attend their local district school, fewer than 40% prefer that option. On the flip side, less than 10% attend private schools even though nearly 40% would prefer a private school for their children./p p div data-embed-button=image data-entity-embed-display=view_mode:media.blog_post data-entity-type=media data-entity-uuid=e2b36791-177a-4916-b532-40aa3ec4b72e class=align-center embedded-entity data-langcode=en img width=518 height=265 alt=Schools people have versus what they want class=lozad image-style-pubs-2x component-image loading=lazy data-src=/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2021-09/hron%20Fig%202.png?itok=H2IOzfCK typeof=Image //div /ppThese findings should be encouraging to the lawmakers who voted to expand or create new education choice programs in 18 states this year. a href=https://www.edchoice.org/engage/how-many-students-are-now-eligible-for-new-expanded-school-choice-programs/ rel=noreferrer noopener target=_blankEdChoice estimates/a that more than 4 million children could be newly eligible for an education choice program thanks to these changes, although program caps mean fewer than half of those children will be able to take advantage of their new eligibility./p pAnother survey finding may prompt states to follow West Virginia’s lead by enacting universal ESAs. More than 75% of respondents who support ESAs prefer them to be universal rather than targeted; among parents, that jumps to more than 80%./p pOne of the most promising results of this polling is that support for all education choice programs increases when what they are is explained to respondents. This should inspire anyone working to increase choice options in their state./p pOver the past year, the need for education choice has become increasingly clear, whether it’s because of COVID-19 policies (in‐​person vs remote, masks vs no masks), curriculum battles (critical race theory, gender identity lessons in young grades), or wanting new options to recover from COVID-19 learning loss. With broad support for all forms of choice in this survey, there are plenty of reasons to expect another “year of educational choice” in the near future./p