New Poll of Likely Voters Shows Strong, Bipartisan Support for Education Choice
MADISON – A new poll of likely Wisconsin voters shows that school choice is exceptionally popular, with 67 percent of respondents saying they support the policy. Importantly, school choice earns bipartisan praise, with a majority of Democrats, Independents and Republicans in support.
The poll was commissioned by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) following a lawsuit filing that challenges the validity of the state’s school choice programs – which more than 54,000 students and 383 schools participate in statewide.
“School choice is immensely popular because it works,” said WMC Executive Vice President of Government Relations Scott Manley. “That is why we see support from all voters, no matter their political affiliation.”
Voters, also by a wide margin, would be less likely to support candidates that make any attempts to eliminate Wisconsin’s school choice options.
When asked whether they would be more or less likely to support a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice if they knew they voted to end the Wisconsin School Choice Program, a strong majority of likely voters (58%) said this would make them less likely to support them. Roughly the same number of voters (60%) would be less likely to support a legislative candidate who voted in a similar fashion.
The survey of 700 likely Wisconsin voters was conducted by OnMessage Inc. Oct. 17-19. The margin of error was +/- 3.7 percentage points.
