The poll released by gathered respondents’ views on ESAs, a program giving families access to state education funds to pay for approved services, such as private school tuition, instructional materials and tutoring.

From the 634 parents interviewed, 59.7% support ESAs, with 14.6% opposed and 25.7% undecided.

Similar splits were seen among parents along party lines, with 67.5% of Democrats, 61.3% of Republicans and 55.3% of Independents in favor of ESAs.

But ESAs are certainly controversial, with supporters, often Republicans, backing the program’s boon for family empowerment; and opponents, often Democrats, arguing how the program undermines public education.

“The momentum we are seeing, not just with the public but with parents, educators and those who are in some way touching education in America right now is very much inspiring,” said Erica Jedynak, chief operating officer of

According to the YouGov poll, support for ESAs is decisive among Black parents, with 70.3% in favor of the program. By comparison, 59.1% of white parents and 50.8% of Hispanic parents support ESAs.

The pattern is similar among teachers: From the 313 teachers interviewed, 58.8% support ESAs in contrast to 14.7% that oppose and 26.5% that are undecided.

Among Black teachers, however, 78.9% favor ESAs. By comparison, 56.2% of white teachers and 60.7% of Hispanic teachers favor the program.

ESAs also have broad support from teachers across the political spectrum, with 58.2% of Democrats, 63.8% of Republicans and 54% of Independents in favor.

Sadira Davis, a Black parent in Phoenix, Arizona, said that this comes to no surprise because public schools in Black communities are often considered incapable of providing a quality education.

“My daughter Eden was diagnosed with autism at four…and when I transferred her to a public school kindergarten it was honestly devastating,” Davis told ����Ӱ��.

Davis said the staff at her public school were ill-equipped to manage students with special needs. In one particularly painful memory, Davis recalled her daughter was tied down as she rode the school bus.

“It was a traumatizing experience…they had her harnessed and she had this face that looked like an animal chained to the bus,” Davis said. “At that point I needed something different for my kid.”

Davis’ daughter is now a 6th grade student at AZ Aspire Academy, a special education school, which Davis enrolled her by using funds from Arizona’s ESA program, the .

Black children are often the ones who “fall through the cracks in public school systems,” said Tiffany Dudley, a former charter elementary school teacher in Phoenix, Arizona.

As the student development coach for , Dudley said that ESAs give Black parents the choice to have their child taught by teachers who have “walked a mile in their shoes.”

“Parents can’t necessarily demand their teacher give directions to their child in a different way,  but they do have the choice to take them to another school that will better serve them,” Dudley said.

Janelle Wood, founder and chief executive officer of , is shocked by the overwhelming support among Black teachers for ESAs, as they are often perceived as devoted supporters of public schools.

“I always scratch my head because oftentimes they’re the ones that get overlooked for promotions and retaliated against when they speak up on some of the injustices they see,” Wood told ����Ӱ��.

ESAs offer Black teachers the opportunity to work in settings they may have never been exposed to, such as private schools, microschools and learning pods.

“Many of our educators feel limited in what they can teach and how they can go about administering the different educational models they learned when they went to school,” Wood said. “This gives them that flexibility and freedom, so I’m really pleased to hear their support.”

Disclosure: Yes. Every Kid. operates as part of the wider Stand Together Trust network. Stand Together Trust provides financial support to ����Ӱ��.

Conducted by Tyton Partners, an investment banking and consulting firm that examines pandemic-related shifts in education, and funded in part by the Walton Family Foundation and Stand Together Trust, the was released Oct. 26.

It comes after parents had courtside seats to various aspects of their children’s learning during the pandemic, prompting many — from myriad backgrounds and political affiliations — to push for change.

“What we’re hearing from parents loud and clear is they feel a greater sense of ownership over their child’s education,” said Christian Lehr, a senior principal in Tyton’s strategy consulting practice. “The last two years have been incredibly difficult. Now, parents are actively searching for new experiences that will deliver on academic promises, yes, but also bring joy and delight.” 

Fifty-nine percent of participants said their educational preferences changed post-pandemic: 51% said personal interest and needs should drive a child’s education rather than grade-level requirements. 

Nearly 80% said learning can and should happen anywhere. 

Some parent groups, frustrated by underperforming schools, have advocated for the types of change they feel will propel children of color and other marginalized groups. Many don’t have a political agenda while others are openly partisan: Conservative parents are driving change from within the public school system, pushing for certain texts — often those that concern issues of race and gender — to be pulled from the classroom. Left-leaning suburban families against this trend. 

Others still, unhappy with districts’ remote learning options during the pandemic, entirely. And while some have returned to campus, virtual school enrollment figures remain high. 

Survey results also reveal that children from underserved backgrounds — a family who identified in the survey with at least two of the following: low-income, Black, Latino, Indigenous and with first-generation college-goers — are less likely than their peers to attend private schools or engage in learning beyond their typical school day. Thirty-eight percent of the 739 respondents in this category indicated they did not participate in any “out-of-school” learning experiences compared to 24% of their peers. 

Just 20% of underserved children attended camp compared to 32% of other students: Likewise, only 9% had private tutors compared to 14% of the remainder.

“Unfortunately, not all families can live out their K-12 aspirations,” Lehr said. “Too many parents are stuck. We must work hard to connect families with a broader set of learning opportunities and provide them the resources and tools necessary to take action.”

The survey included roughly 80 questions but respondents, each of whom had at least one child in grades K-12, didn’t answer all of them: The questions were dependent on previous answers and each took participants down a different path. 

Lakisha Young, executive director of The Oakland REACH, a parent-run group that empowers families from underserved communities to demand high-quality schools, said her organization was born out of frustration. 

On the 2022 California , 65% of Oakland Unified School District students failed to meet grade-level standards in English and 74% missed the mark in math. The roughly 35,500-student district has been failing children for generations, said Young, who reasons students wouldn’t fare so poorly if administrators were capable of improving outcomes without assistance. 

“We exist out of a problem,” said Young, who has three children, her eldest a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College. “And we have to do everything we can to address it.”

The Oakland REACH, which got its start in 2016, launched an online family literacy hub during the pandemic that provides students with research-based reading instruction. 

The group is also working to recruit dozens of parents and other community members to serve as tutors for reading and math, helping them land paid jobs within the school district that not only support students but lift up families. 

“They resemble our kids, and come from similar neighborhoods,” Young said of the tutors. “Our model builds the assets already in the community.”

The Oakland REACH, which has plans to replicate its programs across the state and nation, has caught the attention of major education philanthropists, including MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who recently donated $3 million and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which earlier gave . It’s among 31 education nonprofits that will split $10 million in funding from Accelerate, a new venture launched this year by America Achieves to ensure that all students have access to free, effective tutoring.

Tyton also gathered information from more than 150 K-12 suppliers who serve children in and out of school. It advises the K-12 community to be parent centric and consider the availability, affordability and accessibility of the programs they offer — and communicate these offerings to parents. 

To that end, policymakers and those working in education can develop online platforms and provide guidance for families to navigate their local K-12 ecosystem, it said. Suppliers of student programs, the report found, can increase capacity to serve more children — and funders can help them grow. 

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Stand Together Trust provide financial support to ����Ӱ��.

As analysts dissect the data from a political race they may try to lump all parental choice supporters into the same messaging box. To be clear, we are not one monolithic voting bloc who disagrees with a fair accounting of our country’s history being taught to our children. We do want our children to learn about slavery and the ongoing effects of racism.

There are people out here who believe the school environment that is best for their child is one in which Toni Morrison novels are not part of the curriculum. And that’s fine. They can have their choice, just like we can have ours. However, my plea to my friends in the education reform movement is do not allow a highly respected, well-regarded, and, in many ways, revered author in the Black community to be demonized as a political hot potato.

I implore those of us in the parent choice community to make it abundantly clear that we stand for parents having the right to choose and educators having the power to create curriculums that tell the truth in ways that will empower our children to be braver than we were, poised and prepared to take on the future because they have learned about their ancestors’ past.

This year’s political campaigns would have you believe that parent choice advocates side with one political party over the other, simply because our interests converge over public charter schools. That is simply not true. Let’s not let politicians twist our advocacy to best fit their needs.

As a Black parent and leader of the Freedom Coalition for Charter Schools, it is very clear to me that education choice is a winning political platform and sound policy. Our coalition is an organization that currently has 250 organizational members across 21 states that collectively serve more than 1 million Black and Brown families. We believe in parents having the freedom to choose the best schools for their children, regardless of their income or zip code. We fight for these liberatory freedoms every day. 

We cannot allow parent choice to be muddied by the voices out there arguing against CRT, especially considering they are at best unaware that it is an academic theory that is being discussed in graduate schools and at worst, using this as a proxy argument against children learning about the honest history of our country.

I am one who believes that children will be better citizens if they learn both the dark and beautiful facts that make America the promising country that it is.

RaShaun Kemp is the executive director of the Freedom Coalition for Charter Schools, which promotes public charter schools and chartering to advance and protect the right of self-determination for Black and brown people.