New Polling Shows Majority of Parents Support the Federal Tax Credit for K-12 Education Scholarships 

New year, new polling data.

From December 2025 to February 2026, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of thousands of Americans and school parents on topics such as the new Federal Tax Credit for Scholarships, how parents grade their child’s school and prioritize certain class subjects, and plenty more.  

In partnership with Morning Consult, EdChoice surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,250 adults and roughly 1,300 school parents each month in December, January, and February. The full polling report can be found here. 

What did we learn? 

Opinions on the new Federal Tax Credit for Scholarships 

1. Both school parents and the public are supportive of the policy. Nearly three-fourths (72%) of school parents signaled support for the Federal Tax Credit for Scholarships, with 31% strongly supporting the policy. Over half of the general public supports the policy as well, albeit at a slightly lower level (60%). High income respondents ($100K+), MAGA supporters, and Muslim respondents are the demographic groups most supportive of the new federal tax credit.    

2. School parents are much more likely than the general public to say they’ve heard about the new federal tax credit. Over a quarter of school parents (27%) said they’ve heard “a great deal” or “a lot” about the new federal tax credit, compared to just 14% of adults who said the same. Just under half (42%) of adults said they’ve heard “nothing at all” about the policy, compared to about one-third of parents (32%) who said they are unaware.  

3. School parents are also more likely than the general public to signal they are going to donate in exchange for a tax credit. Over one-third of school parents (38%) said they are “extremely” or “very” likely to donate to a scholarship granting organization (SGO) in exchange for a tax credit, if their state were to opt into the program. Only 20% of adults showed a similar level of interest. 

What if their state does not opt into the program? While both school parents and adults’ likelihood of participating in the tax credit program decreased, there was not a drastic drop off. Still, roughly a quarter of school parents (26%) and 13% of adults indicated they’d be highly likely to donate to an SGO, in a different state, in exchange for a tax credit.  

Switching Roles: How Do Parents Grade Their Child’s School? 

1. Private school parents are over 20-points more likely than public school parents to rate their child’s school as an “A”. When asked to grade their child’s school, over half of private school parents (57%) rated their child’s school with an “A”, compared to only 35% of public school parents. That said, a majority of both private school (92%) and public school parents (74%) said their child’s school deserved either an “A” or “B” grade. 

We observe similar attitudes when we ask about satisfaction. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of private school parents say they are “very satisfied” with their child’s school, compared to just 42% of public school parents. This sentiment from private school parents has fluctuated in the past 12 months. At this point last year, just over half of private school parents (52%) expressed strong satisfaction with their child’s school. In November of 2025, though, the percentage of private school parents that were very satisfied reached a new peak of 72%. With the current satisfaction level of private school parents nestled between what we saw at the beginning and end of 2025, the satisfaction gap between private school parents and public school remains wide (21-points).  

Despite the large gap (21-points), satisfaction among public school parents has generated some momentum over the past few months. The share of public school parents reporting strong satisfaction has been at or below 40% since October 2023. Strong satisfaction jumped to 43% in November 2025 and held steady in February at 42%.

Additional Key Findings 

1. School parents lack trust in both Democrats and Republicans to make good decisions about K-12 education. Only 30% of school parents have “a great deal” or “a lot” of trust in the Republican party in K-12 education decision making. Trust in the Democratic party among school parents is slightly lower at 27%. On the other hand, 28% of school parents say they have no trust at all in the Republican party, while 22% say the same for the Democratic party.  

School parents are generally divided in their trust of the political parties regarding specific areas of K-12 education. We asked adults and school parents about a handful of issues within K-12 education, and to decide which political party is more trustworthy. Interesting, school parents were slightly more likely to say Democrats were more trustworthy when it comes to expanding options and flexibility for families, as well as expanding access and opportunity in K-12 education generally. In contrast, school parents felt that Republicans were more trustworthy in improving education quality, encouraging innovation and competition, as well as using resources efficiently.  

2. School parents consider math to be the most important class subject for their children. One-third of school parents revealed that math is the most important class subject for their child this school year, while English/language arts/reading was the clear second choice in terms of importance among school parents (22%). Computer science (10%), science (9%), and history/social studies (6%) were less important subjects to school parents.  

We also asked school parents to think about the subjects that have been the most valuable in their own lives. Math held the top spot again (29%), while English/language arts/reading (19%) was the second most important subject taught to school parents. Business/finance/accounting (9%), science (7%), and computer science (6%) rounded out the top 5.  

3. Support for, and awareness of, ESAs among school parents has increased since last fall. More than three-fourths of school parents (77%) support ESAs, while opposition to the policy fell to 9%. Support slightly increased (+4) since last November. Importantly, the percentage of school parents who said they are aware of ESA programs in their state jumped to 46% (+7 from last November). In our time tracking awareness, school parents have struggled to identify ESA policies in their state compared to other policies like school vouchers and charter schools, which have been around much longer than ESAs. Currently, school parents’ awareness of ESAs (46%) is nearly at the same level as school vouchers (47%), but still has quite a ways to go to catch up with charter schools (64%).   

Read the full report.