WHO SUPPORTS EDUCATIONAL VOUCHERS?
Public support for voucher systems is steadily growing. In the 1998 and 1999 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Polls, 51 percent of respondents said they would favor a proposal for total/partial government-paid tuition to send their children to private or church-related schools. In 1999, 60 percent of public- school parents favored such plans, compared with 56 percent in 1998. When questions specified voucher plans, proponents and opponents’ responses were more evenly divided (Rose and Gallup 1998 and 1999). Characterizing voucher advocates is difficult, as the case for parental choice “is made by those of all political stripes and persuasions,… by members of majority and minority ethnic groups; by the wealthy and the poor; by the religious and the secular” (Metcalf and Tait 1999). In contrast with media reportage of prominent politicians’ views, the 1998 Kappan/Gallup poll found that Republican respondents were evenly split over full-tuition vouchers for private or religious schools; a slim ma
