Giving Compass' Take:

• School choice advocates often rely on a bleak narrative of traditional public schools to prop up their argument, but is this tactic alienating potential allies? 

• How can school choice advocates better present their case to those who may be more receptive to moderate rhetoric? How does messaging play into the success and failure of movements? 

• Has environmentalist rhetoric around climate change alienated potential allies? 

The school-choice movement features more than its share of alarmist rhetoric and extravagant boasts. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has opined that school choice is necessary because millions of students “are trapped in schools that fail to meet their needs.”

Advocates for charter schooling, school vouchers, and education savings accounts seem convinced that they are well-served by creating a stark contrast between what they’re offering and the familiar status quo — that talk of failing schools and promises of disruption will help win over parents and voters.

Yet the remarkable legislative success has not been matched by similar shifts in public opinion

While there’s evidence that support for school choice has broadly increased over time, the trend is far more muddled than a casual observer might imagine. PDK International’s annual survey of the public’s views on education has asked the same question on school vouchers for 25 years.

At first, views on vouchers rose steadily: from 24 percent positive vs. 74 percent negative in 1993, to 46 vs. 52 percent, respectively, in 2002. Since 2002, however, support has stagnated; in 2017, it stood at 39 percent — lower than it had been 15 years before (opposition held steady at 52 percent). Education Next’s annual survey has asked about vouchers since 2011, finding that support for vouchers has stayed roughly constant, hovering between 43 and 50 percent between 2011 and 2017.

Read the full article on charter school rhetoric by Frederick M. Hess and Sofia Gallo at American Enterprise Institute