President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t even taken the oath of office yet, but already supporters and opponents of his promise to make it easier for families to use public dollars to pay for private schools a big focus of his second-term K-12 agenda are previewing their arguments.
Supporters of more choice—both within private and public education—contend that the policy has strong public support.
The yes. every kid. foundation, a nonprofit that backs expanding all types of school choice, released a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults on Dec. 12 that showed a majority of Americans—and even higher percentages of K-12 parents—favor tax credit scholarships, education savings accounts, and public-school choice. (Tax credit scholarships and education savings accounts are mechanisms to provide parents with public funds to enroll their kids in private schools or, in some cases, home-school them. Public-school choice allows parents to choose a public school for their child other than the one to which they’re assigned.)
“This isn’t a 50-50, partisan issue,” Scott Foster, the director of education marketplace and insights for the foundation, told reporters. “Despite all the opposition and all the money spent in the past year or two trying to defeat education freedom efforts around the country, there are very solid majorities in favor of these policies.”
On the same day, the National Coalition for Public Education, an alliance that’s opposed to private school choice measures, sent a letter to congressional leaders opposing a bill to create a federal tax credit scholarship program. That legislation, which passed a key House panel this year, is expected to form the basis for Trump’s national school choice program.
“Tuition tax credit voucher schemes may have a different name and structure, but they are simply another private school voucher,” said the letter, which was signed by more than 50 education, civil rights, and disability advocacy organizations.
The legislation, which was introduced in the House by Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., would “divert taxpayer funds away from public education and into private schools,” which can then turn students away because of their “disability, sexual orientation and gender identity, religion, academic achievement, and economic status,” the letter argues. The signatories included the Council for Exceptional Children, the Education Trust, and the National Education Association.
Voters this year rejected school choice on three state ballot measures
The yes. every kid. foundation survey found that three-quarters of adults—72 percent—and 81 percent of parents of students in K-12 schools support giving families more choice in how their child is educated, the schools they attend, and the way financial resources for education are used, the survey found.
Most respondents—68 percent overall, and 75 percent of K-12 parents—also favor allowing students to attend any public school in their state, even if it is not one their child is zoned for, the survey found.
Almost two-thirds of adults overall—63 percent—and 75 percent of K-12 parents back the use of education savings accounts, or ESAs, to help families cover private school tuition, tutoring services, online education programs, and more, the survey found.
And 60 percent of adults—plus 76 percent of K-12 parents—surveyed said they like the idea of tax credits to help families pay similar education-related costs, including for private school.
This is the second year in a row that the foundation has sought to capture public opinion on school choice. Last year’s survey yielded similar results, Foster said, a sign that support for choice-related polices is consistent. The survey, which was conducted for the foundation by YouGov, included responses from 1,000 adults.
Sasha Pudelski, a co-chair of the National Coalition for Public Education, said the wording of the questions generally emphasized the upside of school choice-related policies without detailing the potential cost to public schools, and therefore aren’t a true barometer of public sentiment.
“Clearly, they have an agenda and are willing to spend money on slanted, leading poll questions to promote their narrative,” said Pudelski, who is also the director of advocacy for AASA, The School Superintendents Association. AASA is also part of the coalition and signed the letter to congressional leaders.
The real poll, she said, came at the ballot box this fall when voters in three states—blue Colorado and deep red Kentucky and Nebraska—spurned initiatives that would have expanded choice.
Voters realize that “we can’t afford to fund a secondary private system of education when the one that 90 percent of our students attend is underfunded,” Pudelski said.
But Matt Frendewey, the yes. every kid. foundation’s vice president of strategy, argued that ballot initiatives typically fail since voters will reject any proposal they don’t fully understand. “I wouldn’t say [those rejections] are an indication of where voters are,” he said.
And he dismissed the contention that a tax credit scholarship would draw resources from public schools, arguing school choice hasn’t “devastated public schools” in the 28 states that have embraced the policy.
“That’s really just a talking point from the status quo,” Frendewey said.
