Milwaukee, Wisc. April 27, 2022 — A new Marquette University Law School poll found that 58% of Wisconsin voters support “allowing all students statewide to use publicly funded vouchers to attend private or religious schools if they wish to do so.”
Despite this majority support, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers recently vetoed such expansion. Assembly Bill 970, which passed the Senate 20 to 11 and the Assembly 59 to 34, would have eliminated the income limits for Wisconsin Parental Choice programs. Evers vetoed the bill on April 15, 2022.
“Evers is choosing to side with the public school establishment over Wisconsin parents,” says American Federation for Children – Wisconsin State Director Justin Moralez. “Hard-working parents across the state are saying loud and clear that they want more educational options, and Evers is ignoring them.”
Recent data from Remington Research Group showed that 71% of eligible Milwaukee voters agree that parents should have the right to choose between public, charter and voucher schools. Similarly, 64% of voters said that they are more or equally like to vote for a candidate that supports school choice.
Another recent poll from City Forward Collective found that 56% of Milwaukeeans surveyed had favorable perceptions of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), a significant increase in 2021 over MPS.
Nationally, a poll from RealClear Opinion Research saw 72% of registered voters support the concept of school choice, an 8% increase since April 2020. And according to a recent poll by OnMessage Inc, Democratic support for education freedom and customizable learning now tops 70%.
“All of this data affirms what many in the parental choice movement have known for years: no single school is right for every child, and parents should have the freedom and empowerment to make decisions about their child’s education,” says Moralez.
In February, when the Department of Public Instruction’s Private School Choice application opened, enrollment was so high that it crashed their servers.
Evers won his election in 2018 by less than 30,000 votes.
