Republicans are finding success selling school choice policies this year despite receiving pushback on other matters. Most voters, including most Democrats, support a federal tax credit scholarship that states can participate in, according to a poll released Tuesday.
In the poll from 3D Strategic Research, 57% of surveyed voters also signaled they would support school choice candidates in their state legislatures.
Recommended Stories
- Judge orders Trump to restore over $500 million in federal grants to UCLA
- Kamala Harris expresses concerns over transgender athletes in girls' sports
- Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and GOP governors headlining Turning Point tour
Two in 10 respondents said they would not vote for state legislature candidates who support school choice, and 22% said they were undecided. Surveyed parents with K-12 students in public schools support school choice candidates by a 55%-27% margin, the poll results show.
“Parents are the interest group to which politicians at all levels must respond or face political consequences,” American Federation for Children CEO Tommy Schultz said. “As the latest scores from the Nation’s Report Card prove, our nation’s education system is in an undeclared state of emergency and in desperate need of meaningful competition and ways out for students who need it.”
The respondents were 47% male and 53% female, with a demographic breakdown of 67% white non-Hispanic respondents, 12% Hispanic, 14% black or African American, and 7% Asian or other. Politically, 35% of the poll‘s respondents were Republican, 33% were Democrats, and 31% were independent.
School choice advocacy group American Federation for Children Growth Fund commissioned the poll, which surveyed 1,000 national voters from Sept. 6 to 11, including 300 parents with children under 18. The survey was conducted in the same week that the national report card showed significant dips in national math, science, and reading scores.
U.S. students were performing worse across all subjects in 2024 than they were in 2019, this year’s national report card results from the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics showed. More high school seniors were scoring below basic achievement levels in both reading and math than they have ever before in a national report card.
The national report card results and the school choice survey results come alongside a push from the Trump administration and Education Secretary Linda McMahon to support school choice and defederalize education.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PUSHES STATES TO USE FEDERAL FUNDS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE
“Despite billions in federal spending and countless well-intentioned programs, the achievement gap between students is widening, not shrinking,” McMahon said in response to the national report card results. “This trend did not begin with COVID, it goes back a decade. Clearly success isn’t about how much money we spend, but who spends it. That’s why President Trump and I are committed to reversing course and returning control of education to the states.”
In July, the North Carolina state legislature sent a bill to Gov. Josh Stein’s (D-NC) desk to implement the Trump administration’s model school choice program, becoming the first state to do so. Stein vetoed the bill in early August, stating he supports school choice but does not support public school funding cuts.
“Cutting public education funding by billions of dollars while providing billions in tax giveaways to wealthy parents already sending their kids to private schools is the wrong choice,” Stein said.
However, Stein said he does support the federal scholarship donation tax credit program and will opt North Carolina into it “once the federal government issues sound guidance.”
Stein was referring to a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that helps fund K-12 private school tuition by giving tax credits for donations to non-profit education scholarships.
BLUE STATES UNCERTAIN IF THEY WILL OPT IN TO FEDERAL SCHOOL VOUCHER PROGRAM
The 3D Strategic Research poll also referenced the provision, asking respondents whether they supported “federal tax credit for donations to non-profit K-12 educational scholarship granting organizations who provide scholarships to families for education options like private schools or tutoring programs.”
Fifty-eight percent of voters support the tax credit, including 53% of surveyed Democrats, with 22% of all respondents opposing the credit, according to the poll results.