The August release of the latest Education Next poll set the education-reform field ablaze, for it showed a sizable and worrying decline in support for charter schools. We wonks weighed in with our best guesses about what might explain this unexpected trend. Among the factors raised: the overall political environment as we passed from the Obama Era to the Age of Trump, which might chill support for charters on the left; charter scandals and lackluster performance, at least in some states; and the movement’s own obsession with ultra-progressive causes, which might impede support on the right. If only we could improve charter quality, some advocates claimed, we’d see our poll numbers turn around. Or perhaps, others wondered, we need to widen the base of charter support by expanding charters into the affluent suburbs.

Plausible speculations all, but speculations nonetheless.

Now, however, we have a bit more data to inform our analyses. A major education policy organization — a credible source that has asked to remain confidential — gave me access to survey results from a 1,000 person national poll with 300-person “supplements” in a dozen states.

These data provide more reason for the charter movement to get busy building schools in neighborhoods far and wide, and working to serve affluent kids, low-income kids, and everyone in between.

Read the full article and poll results about charter school perception nationwide by Michael J. Petrilli at The Thomas B. Fordham Institute.