School Choice Is Becoming a Bipartisan Story — Here's the Evidence

Headlines this week are framing school choice as a rare bright spot of bipartisan agreement in education policy. That's a bold claim in a political climate where almost nothing gets called bipartisan anymore — so it's worth looking at what's actually behind it.

For years, school choice has often been described as a partisan issue.

Republicans have generally been the stronger supporters of policies such as school vouchers and education savings accounts (ESAs), while Democrats have more often emphasized strengthening traditional public schools. But recent polling suggests that the picture is becoming more complicated—particularly when it comes to education savings accounts.

The divide over school choice hasn't disappeared. Republicans and Democrats still differ substantially on some policies. But on certain forms of educational choice, support now crosses traditional political lines.

And the numbers are worth looking at.

Americans broadly support educational choice

The 2026 Schooling in America survey from EdChoice found majority support among Americans for several forms of school choice.

According to the survey, 78% of Americans support education savings accounts, while 72% support tax-credit scholarships, 69% support school vouchers and 68% support charter schools.

Support is also high among parents. Eighty-four percent of school parents surveyed said they support ESAs.

The survey also found that 77% of Americans support making ESAs available universally, rather than limiting them only to families with lower incomes or children with particular educational needs.

That doesn't mean Americans agree on every detail of how school choice should work. But it does suggest that the concept of giving families more options in how they educate their children has moved beyond a narrow political constituency.

The ESA numbers are particularly striking

Education savings accounts are different from traditional vouchers.

An ESA generally allows eligible families to receive public funds through an account that can be used for approved educational expenses. Depending on the state program, those expenses can include private-school tuition, tutoring, curriculum, educational materials, technology and other educational services.

The National Conference of State Legislatures notes that states have taken different approaches to designing ESA programs, including differences in eligibility, allowable expenses and funding structures.

That flexibility may help explain why ESAs have attracted support from voters with different educational priorities.

But the most striking evidence of a bipartisan shift comes from the partisan numbers.

An EdChoice analysis found that 74% of Republicans and 75% of Democrats supported universal education savings accounts.

In other words, in that survey, Democratic support was actually one percentage point higher than Republican support.

That is a very different picture from the traditional assumption that school choice is simply a Republican policy.

But the partisan divide hasn't disappeared

The numbers become more complicated when different types of school choice are separated.

EdChoice's analysis found that Republicans were considerably more likely than Democrats to support school vouchers.

Support for vouchers was 77% among Republicans compared with 57% among Democrats.

That is still majority support among Democrats, but it represents a much larger partisan gap than the numbers for universal ESAs.

This distinction matters.

"School choice" is an umbrella term covering several different policies. Someone can support charter schools or education savings accounts while having reservations about traditional vouchers. Likewise, someone can support public-school choice without supporting the use of public funds for private-school tuition.

The political conversation can become misleading when all of these policies are treated as though they are the same thing.

Another survey finds majority Democratic support for ESAs

The bipartisan picture isn't limited to EdChoice's polling.

A nationwide education survey conducted by the Hunt Institute found that 65% of voters overall supported using taxpayer dollars for education savings accounts.

Republican support was higher, at 75%, but a majority of Democrats—52%—also said they strongly or somewhat supported the policy.

Independents registered 56% support, while support among parents reached 66%.

The numbers show both sides of the story.

There remains a significant partisan difference in intensity of support. Republicans are more likely to support taxpayer-funded ESAs than Democrats.

At the same time, a majority of Democratic respondents in this survey supported the concept.

That makes it difficult to describe ESAs as exclusively a Republican position.

Why might the conversation be changing?

One possible explanation is that parents' experiences with education don't always fit neatly into political categories.

Families may be interested in different educational environments for very different reasons.

Some parents may want a traditional public school with specialized programs. Others may prefer a charter school, private school, microschool, homeschooling or a hybrid model.

Some may be looking for smaller class sizes. Others may be responding to a child's learning differences, academic needs, social environment or extracurricular interests.

And for some families, the issue isn't ideological at all.

It is simply the question: Does this educational environment work for my child?

Education savings accounts can appeal to families who want more control over that decision because they can potentially be used across several types of educational services rather than tying funding exclusively to one school model.

The shift is showing up in politics, too

Polling is only one part of the story.

Political leaders are also beginning to approach school choice in ways that don't always fit traditional party lines.

Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, for example, has emerged as a notable Democratic supporter of the federal school-choice tax-credit program.

At the same time, other Democratic governors have expressed reservations about the federal program or have taken a more cautious approach.

That divide illustrates something important: bipartisan interest does not mean bipartisan agreement.

Democrats remain divided over questions surrounding public funding, private schools, accountability and the impact of choice programs on traditional public schools.

Republicans, meanwhile, have generally been more supportive of expanding private-school-choice programs.

The political debate is therefore evolving rather than disappearing.

The public-school question remains central

For families considering school choice, the debate isn't simply about whether parents should have options.

There is also a larger question about what happens to the public education system when public dollars follow students into other educational settings.

Supporters of school choice argue that giving families more options can create greater educational freedom and allow children to find environments that better fit their needs.

Critics have raised concerns about public funding flowing to private education, accountability requirements, potential effects on public-school funding and whether choice programs primarily benefit families who were already likely to choose private education.

Those disagreements remain significant.

The growing support for school choice therefore shouldn't be interpreted as evidence that Americans have reached consensus about how these programs should operate.

Instead, the polling suggests that more Americans—including substantial numbers of Democrats—are willing to consider giving families additional educational options.

A changing education landscape

The most interesting part of the current school-choice conversation may not be that Republicans support it.

That has been true for years.

It is that some forms of school choice are increasingly attracting support from parents, independents and Democrats as well.

The numbers surrounding universal ESAs are particularly notable: 75% of Democrats and 74% of Republicans supported them in the EdChoice analysis.

That doesn't erase the political differences surrounding vouchers, private-school funding or the role of government in education.

But it does challenge the idea that educational choice can be neatly divided along traditional party lines.

For parents, the question may ultimately be less about political identity and more about educational fit.

As more states experiment with ESAs, charter schools, tax-credit scholarships, microschools and other models, the larger debate may increasingly become about something much more practical:

How much choice should families have in determining what education looks like for their children—and how should that choice be funded and held accountable?

The answer remains a matter of public debate.

But the data suggest that the conversation is no longer happening exclusively on one side of the political aisle.

Sources

EdChoice, 2026 Schooling in America Survey
The survey provides current national data on support for ESAs, vouchers, tax-credit scholarships and charter schools.

EdChoice, “Educational Choice’s Blurred (Political) Lines Revisited”
The analysis examines partisan differences in support for educational-choice policies, including the finding that 75% of Democrats and 74% of Republicans supported universal ESAs.

The Hunt Institute, “Across the Aisle” / Nationwide Education Survey
The survey examines voters' views on education policy and reports majority support among Democratic respondents for taxpayer-funded ESAs.

National Conference of State Legislatures, Education Savings Accounts Policy Scan
Provides a nonpartisan overview of how ESAs operate and the different educational expenses that state programs may allow families to use them for.

Education Week
Reporting on Democratic governors' differing approaches to the federal school-choice tax-credit program, including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis's support and other governors' reservations.