How do Americans feel about school choice? The 2024 EdChoice Schooling in America survey results.
When we talk about the need for school choice in Missouri, we are acknowledging the facts that parents overwhelmingly support choice AND the research overwhelmingly shows that school choice works. School choice benefits not only the students who choose, but also benefits the entire K-12 ecosystem in a city or community.
To help us understand the current support of school choice, we can turn to Indianapolis-based EdChoice Foundation. Each year EdChoice releases their national survey results “Schooling in America” (SIA) that looks at the opinions surrounding K-12 education in America.
The 2024 research shows the shift of American’s perspectives over the last 12 years. The survey questions this year focus on issues like technology in school, accountability and transparency, and awareness of educational choice policies (Ritter & Aldis, 2024).
- Many parents have lost hope for K-12 education since 2014. An all-time high of 64% of parents say education in America is headed in the wrong direction.
- 84% of parents support education savings account (ESA) programs like the MOScholars K-12 scholarship program
- School choice is not a republican vs democratic parent issue; it looks the same for everyone across the board, with democrats at 77% and republicans at 72% likely to support ESAs (Ritter & Aldis, 2024).
- Of the 80% of parents that have children in public schools, about 40% of them would choose public schools for their children again, and 60% would choose private, charter, or homeschool (Ritter et a., p. 1, 2024).
- A majority of parents are not informed about the different school choice options within their states. Approximately 52% of parents do not know if their state offers an education savings account ESA. About 35% of parents do not know if their state offers open enrollment and 26% of parents do not know if their state has charter schools (Ritter et al., p. 2, 2024).
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Ritter, C., & Aldis, A. (2024, Aug 14). 2024 Schooling in America Survey. EdChoice. https://www.edchoice.org/engage/2024-schooling-in-america-survey-is-out-now/
Ritter, C., Aldis, A., Kristof, J., & DiPerna, P. (2024). 2024 Schooling in America: Public Opinion on K-12 Education, Transparency, and School Choice. EdChoice. https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-Schooling-in-America.pdf