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.
For another, survey responses on policy topics can vary substantially based on how questions are worded.
That seems especially true for private school vouchers. Like in previous years, PDK finds fairly strong opposition to vouchers. Education Next helps those findings in context:
Responses about school vouchers differ widely depending on how the question is asked. If one emphasizes that vouchers provide families a “wider choice,” a plurality favors the idea. But if one emphasizes that vouchers will be paid for by “government funds” or “at public expense,” then pluralities or even majorities in opposition can be identified. Opinion is also influenced by whether or not the voucher proposal is for all students or for students of low-income.
Because different education policy polls ask different questions, the survey results complement each other. Different surveys can all help shed light on public sentiment. Ed Next didn’t ask the same public school choice question, for example. We should interpret the results with humility.
