Would CA’n voters support a 2024 school choice initiative?

CA School Choice Foundation president Michael Alexander addresses the longstanding elephant in the room re: local school choice movements: Do Californians—parents, families, voters—actually want these policies? Though one initiative failed to get enough signatures for 2022’s ballot, Alexander highlights recent research data to suggest: If qualified in 2024, a CA’n school choice program would pass with flying colors, on both sides of the aisle.

Top Reasons School Choice Will Win

1. A succession of polls over the last three years shows that over two-thirds of Democrats support school choice. It is higher among Republicans. 

2. A recent poll conducted by the National Education Association showed that only 29% of the public have any confidence in government schools. Among Republicans, that number is only 14%.

3. The results of the “real poll.” In the last year, Californians for School Choice gathered 160,000 – 200,000 signatures in its first effort. Our volunteers report that, with few exceptions, fewer than one in a hundred declined to sign the petition when they heard what it contained.

Government Schools Have Made the Case for School Choice

We are fortunate in one respect, however. For decades, many of us have warned the public about the problems with government school. It was difficult to get our point across. This is no longer the case. The abject academic failure of the schools has put the system on defense. This was bad enough. To make matters worse, however, they shut down the schools, put kids in masks all day, demanded universal vaccination over the objections of parents and pediatric experts, embraced transgenderism and went whole hog on critical race theory over the loud objections of parents of all races. We would like to take credit for making school choice into a movement in California. We must give credit where credit is due. The teachers’ unions and their radical pals on the far left are ones who made this happen. To them I say, “We couldn’t have done this without you!”

My point here is that the argument over school choice is over. The case has been made. The parents are racing each other for the exits. All we have to do is get our initiative petition into their hands. Give them an alternative. They will sign it.

This article originally appeared in the California School Choice Foundation. Read the whole thing here.

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Image by Mike Nelson