NJ Education Report

A new poll from Morning Consult and EdChoice shows that most American parents, as well as the general public, support different forms of school choice, including vouchers, public charters, and homeschooling.  Another finding: parents are most likely to say “core academic subjects” are  the most important purpose of K-8 education—high schools, the majority say, should focus on “skills for future employment.”  And despite all the current attention to anti-racism and gender issues in schools, only one out of three parents regards “fixing social problems” as a priority for our education system.

Note to teachers: the only professions that garner higher prestige from the public than educators are doctors and members of the military.

Drilling down on school choice, Education Savings Accounts (ESA’s), which establish for parents a government-authorized savings account with restricted, but multiple uses for educational purposes, are extremely popular. Seventy-five percent of Black adults support ESA’s. In fact, the lowest approval rating (suburban parents) was still 72% in favor; all demographics (Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Black, Hispanic, Non-Hispanic white, different income levels, ages, and locations) increased their support for ESA’s from August to September of this year.

Here are some other poll highlights:

• School vouchers (where money allocated for a child’s public education goes directly to the parent for any school, including religious ones) have the support of 70% of parents across all demographic groups but are especially strong for high-income families and Gen Z-ers.
• Seventy-five percent of adults, across all demographic groups, support public charter schools, with support increasing from last month among Democrats and adults who live in the Midwest. “Americans’ overall support for public charter schools,” the analysts write, “is more than four times as high as opposition.” Among parents, support is five times as high as opposition.
• There is also broad support for an “open enrollment” policy in K-12 education, which allows a student enrolled in public school to select and transfer to a public school of their choice, rather than attending a school based on where they live.
• The popularity of home-schooling continues to increase, with 2/3 of parents viewing it favorably.
• One-third of parents either have their child in a learning pod (“small groups of children, organized by parents, gathering to learn together”) or would like their children to participate in one.
• About a third of parents believe their child’s school is “political.” One in five feels the school is either too conservative or too liberal.
• 71% of Americans and 81% of school parents underestimate how much money their local public schools spend.