The American Federation for Children (AFC) just released their annual National School Choice Poll, which was conducted by Democratic polling firm Beck Research. The results were encouraging.
From the press release:
- Support for school choice has remained consistently high with 68% supporting and only 28% opposing
- School choice support is bipartisan with majorities from each political party; 84% of Republicans, 55% of Democrats and 67% of Independents indicated support for school choice
- The pro-school choice coalition is diverse with majority support from Latinos (75%), African Americans (72%), and Millennials (75%)
- 83% of respondents support special needs scholarships with only 13% opposing
- Education savings accounts or ESAs saw a jump in support from past year’s surveys with 69% supporting this innovative form of school choice, up from 65% last year; 80% of Millennials and 76% of Latinos support ESAs
There was also decent support for federally-funded school choice ventures.
I think the most interesting finding was that “Millennials outperform all adults on each of these [school choice] proposals.” Millennials may want educational options, but their willingness to vote for school choice candidates remains to be seen.