According to a new poll from RealClear Opinion Research, nearly three-quarters of Americans now say they support school choice, a marked increase from two years ago. Seventy-two percent of registered voters said they back school choice, while only 18 percent said they don’t. The poll was conducted between February 5 and February 9 and surveyed 2,000 registered voters.
That support for school choice held across the ideological spectrum: Eighty-two percent of Republicans, 68 percent of Democrats, and 67 percent of Independents said they like the idea of funding students instead of the public-school system.
Perhaps most interesting, support for school choice remained strong across all the demographic groups surveyed. Hispanic Americans were most supportive of school choice (77 percent), followed closely by white respondents (72 percent), black respondents (70 percent), and Asian respondents (66 percent). School choice is, in other words, a significant wedge issue for the Democratic Party.
This support for school choice has risen steeply across all these demographics since the start of the pandemic. As of April 2020, 64 percent of Americans supported school choice, along with 75 percent of republicans, 59 percent of Democrats, and 60 percent of Independents. Evidently, one major result of the Covid-19 pandemic has been to focus Americans’ attention on education, and many parents appear not to like what they see.