Public Support Grows for Higher Teacher Pay and Expanded School Choice: Results from the 2019 'Education Next' Poll

With the 2020 presidential election campaign now underway, education-policy proposals previously at the edge of the political debate are entering the mainstream. Support for increasing teacher pay is higher now than at any point since 2008, and a majority of the public favors more federal funding for local schools. Free college commands the support of three in five Americans. Support for school vouchers has shifted upward, and tax-credit scholarships along the lines proposed by the current administration now command the support of a sizable majority of adults. These are just a few of the findings of the 13th annual "Education Next" survey of public opinion, administered in May 2019. The poll's nationally representative sample of 3,046 adults includes an oversampling of teachers, African Americans, and those who identify themselves as Hispanic. This year, for the first time, the authors also surveyed a sample of 415 high-school students and their parents. On several issues, the analysis teases out nuances in public opinion by asking variations of questions to randomly selected segments of survey participants. The authors divided respondents at random into two or more segments and asked each group a different version of the same general question. For example, half of the respondents were told--but not the other half--how much the average teacher in their state is paid before asking whether salaries should increase, decrease, or remain about the same. By comparing the differences in the opinions of the two groups, the authors are able to estimate the extent to which relevant information influences public thinking on teacher pay. This essay reports and interprets the poll's major findings.