Education Next’s 2018 survey demonstrated 54 percent of Americans support a universal school voucher program. The survey presents a “nationally representative, stratified sample of 4,601 adults … and representative oversamples of the following subgroups: parents with school-age children living in their home (2,129), teachers (641), African Americans (624), and Hispanics (799).”
The 54 percent support for vouchers is a 9 percentage point increase from the 2017 survey results. Furthermore, 67 percent of Hispanics, 53 percent of blacks, and 47 percent of Democrats said they support school vouchers. Disapproval of vouchers dropped to 31 percent overall.
Tax-credit scholarship programs received 57 percent overall approval, including 68 percent support from Hispanics, 61 percent support from blacks, and 58 percent support from Democrats. These programs allow qualifying families to pay for tuition and fees at private and parochial schools using scholarships provided by donors, who, in return, receive tax credits.
The growth in support for these programs is not surprising, as copious empirical research on voucher programs, education savings accounts, and tax-credit scholarships finds these programs offer families improved access to high-quality schools that meet their children’s unique needs and circumstances. Moreover, these programs improve access to schools that deliver quality education inexpensively. Additionally, these programs benefit public school students and taxpayers by increasing competition, decrease segregation, and improve civic values and practices.
Students at private schools are less likely than their public school peers to experience problems such as alcohol abuse, bullying, drug use, fighting, gang activity, racial tension, theft, vandalism, and weapon-based threats. Furthermore, access to school choice programs may reduce potential for criminal behavior.
The Education Next survey also found that 51 percent of respondents graded their local public schools “A” or “B.” Consequently, half of respondents are not satisfied with their local public school(s). The situation is even more dire for black families: Only 29 percent of black respondents gave their local public schools an “A” or “B” grade. For lower-income white respondents, the number was just 47 percent.
As the survey results demonstrate, far too many Americans deem their local public schools to be less than satisfactory. In other words, about half of America believes public schools are failing to provide the quality education that students and taxpayers deserve. A 2018 Cato Institute study found traditional public schools “have substantial negative effects on U.S. society overall associated with a less-educated populace, less social cohesion, and increased taxpayer burdens … relative to private schools of choice.”
The school a child attends should not be determined solely by his or her ZIP code. However, this is currently the case for most children. Additionally, children should not be forced to attend a public school their parents believe is failing to properly educate them or to keep them safe. The goal of public education in the United States should be to enable all parents, no matter their income level, to choose which schools their children attend. Public schools should not hold a monopoly on education. By implementing school choice programs, we can make sure every child has the opportunity to attend a quality school.
Protecting Students with Child Safety Accounts
https://www.heartland.org/publications-resources/publications/protecting-students-with-child-safety-accounts
In this Heartland Policy Brief, Vicki Alger, senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum and research fellow at the Independent Institute, and Heartland Policy Analyst Tim Benson detail the prevalence of bullying, harassment, and assault taking place in America’s public schools and the difficulties for parents in having their child moved from a school that is unsafe for them. Alger and Benson propose a Child Safety Account program, which would allow parents to immediately have their child moved to a safe school – private, parochial, or public – as soon as parents feel the public school their child is currently attending is too dangerous to their child’s physical or emotional health.