Civitas Poll: Unaffiliated Voters Want More Choice in Education

Raleigh, N.C. – Six in 10 unaffiliated voters in North Carolina want to allow more choice in K-12 education for parents and children.

Sixty-one percent of the state’s unaffiliated voters said giving parents more choice in K-12 education will improve education for students and that North Carolina should move towards allowing more choice for parents and children.  Twenty-eight percent said the state should be the primary educator of all K-12 children and any legislation that allows parents the ability to move children out of the traditional K-12 public school system will weaken public education.  Nine percent said they do not know.

“These poll results confirm what we’ve thought for a long time: support for school choice is wide and broad. All parents want to be able to provide their children with a good education and school choice allows parents that option,” said Civitas Institute senior policy analyst Bob Luebke.

There is support for expanding school choice in North Carolina across a broad spectrum of political philosophies.  Sixty-six percent of unaffiliated voters who identify themselves as independent say expanding choice will improve education.  Those self-identified as Republican also agree by a 64 percent to 23 percent margin, along with 53 percent of those identifying as Democrats.

“It is clear school choice is not a partisan issue. People of differing political beliefs know school choice is good for students and good for public education.  Let’s hope our lawmakers are listening,” added Luebke.

The Civitas Poll is the only regular live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina.  For more information on Civitas polling see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.

Full Text of Question:

“In June, North Carolina passed legislation authorizing tax credits for parents of special needs children to allow them to attend schools that charge tuition. Some people argue that giving parents choice will improve educational outcomes for all students while others argue that taking students away from traditional public schools weaken those schools. Which of the following statements comes closer to your opinion on the issue of school choice and public schools?”

 

61% – Giving parents more choice in K-12 education will improve education for students. North Carolina should move towards allowing more choice in K-12 education for parents and children.

28% – The state should be the primary educator of all K-12 children. Any legislation that allows parents the ability to move children out of the traditional K-12 public school system will weaken public education.

11% – Don’t Know/Refused

Click here for full results and crosstabs.

This poll of 400 unaffiliated general election voters in North Carolina was conducted August 15-16 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ.  All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of unaffiliated voters in North Carolina.  For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in at least one of the past three general elections (2006, 2008, 2010) or be newly registered to vote since November 2, 2010.

The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 400 interviews (registered voters) will be within +/-4.9% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every unaffiliated voter in North Carolina who had voted in at least one of the past three general elections or is newly registered since November 2, 2010.

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