School Choice: Public Opinion in Five Battleground States. Issue Brief

In August, the Manhattan Institute (MI) contracted with Rasmussen Reports to survey public opinion in five states about school choice policies generally, as well as charter schools specifically. Working with MI, Rasmussen crafted nine questions that were added to the organization's regular polling of likely voters for presidential and senatorial races in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This paper will discuss five key questions from those surveys and place the results in the context of what the authors know about charter schools and choice in these states and nationwide.