By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org
    
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American public overwhelmingly supports school choice, including  voucher-style scholarship programs that allow students to attend private schools using state money for tuition.
 
A new national polling report compiled by the American Federation for Children – a school choice advocacy nonprofit – shows strong public support for school choice efforts across the nation.
 
In What Public Opinion Says about School Choice: An analysis of Attitudes toward Educational Options in America, the Federation points to more than a dozen polls in recent years that found:
 
– “85 percent of likely voters and 91 percent of Latinos – in five key states – Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, New Jersey, and Nevada – think voucher or scholarship tax credit programs should be available in some form …”
 
-Voters favor allowing students to attend private schools, using government money for tuition, by a 20 percent margin.
 
– 66 percent of voters in Indiana, which enacted a statewide voucher program in 2011, favor vouchers. Two-thirds of voters favored Louisiana’s Student Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program, which recently was expanded from New Orleans to the entire state.
 
– “ … (I)n Pennsylvania, where lawmakers recently expanded an existing private school scholarship tax credit program and created a new program allowing students to escape  failing schools, a majority of voters said they were more likely to vote for legislators who support school choice,” according to  the Federation’s analysis.
 
It was clear, even before this latest analysis, that parents and taxpayers want a say in how and where their children go to school. The Federation’s analysis puts all of the evidence in one place, making a compelling case of public support for school choice. And lawmakers are listening.
 
America is home to 32 publicly funded private school choice programs, spread across 16 states and the District of Columbia. Nearly a quarter-million students were given the opportunity to attend the school of their choice through these programs, the Federation reports.
 
“There is great momentum for school choice because Democrat and Republican policymakers around the country are recognizing what parents already know – that all options should be on the table to give kids, who are trapped in perpetually underperforming schools, an immediate path to a quality education,” Kevin Chavous, a senior Federation advisor, said in a prepared statement yesterday.
 
The American Federation for Children website offers a state-by-state comparison of school choice programs.