Minnesotans support education funding following the child
A majority of Minnesotans favor a school choice policy where parents can use state funding (tax dollars) for tuition and transportation at a private or parochial school, according to an August statewide survey conducted by the Morris Leatherman Company on behalf of the Minnesota School Boards Association.
Respondents were asked: “Should parents be able to choose to send their children to a private or parochial school instead of their local public school district and receive state funding for tuition and transportation?”
Among Minnesota parents, 72 percent support this concept. Statewide, 61 percent are supportive, and in the metro area, 61 percent also expressed support.
Support for a school choice policy where education dollars follow the child “has been pretty consistent over the last few years,” noted Peter Leatherman, who presented the survey results. “People are flailing for solutions on how to fix things across the board, whether it’s crime, the economy, education, and this [support for school choice] really has stabilized now.”
The results mirror the findings from American Experiment’s spring 2023 Thinking Minnesota Poll, where 74 percent favored a school choice policy that gives parents the right to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to a public or private school that best serves theirs needs. Even 61 percent of Democrats expressed support.
A Morning Consult poll conducted on behalf of EdChoice found that 75 percent of Minnesota school parents support education savings accounts (ESAs) — a school policy that allows parents to use a portion of the education funds allocated for their child’s education toward tuition, transportation, and other pre-approved educational services. Sixty-nine percent of Minnesotans statewide also support ESAs.
Given that there is already an ESA bill on file with the Minnesota Legislature, legislators have an upcoming opportunity to take a family empowerment approach to education policy that is widely supported by their constituents.