Study Finds Pro-Charter School Arguments Are More Convincing
A study from Michigan State University professors Sarah Reckhow and Matt Grossman and University of Rochester Ph.D. student Benjamin C. Evans recently found that the language used by pro-charter school advocates is more effective in advancing their cause than the language used by groups who discourage support of these schools. Researchers surveyed over 1,000 Michigan residents about their views on charter schools in order to glean these results. The study was published in December in the peer-reviewed Policy Studies Journal.
Charter schools are publicly funded, but typically privately run. In recent years, the schools have proliferated: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between the school years of 1999 – 2000 and 2011 – 2012, the percentage of public schools classified as charters increased from around 2 percent to 6 percent. While support for charter schools has largely become a bipartisan issue -- President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton have come out in favor, as well as Republican legislators like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, researchers were interested in ascertaining whether trends of support are likely to fall along certain ideological lines.
Researchers surveyed people about their views on charter schools to see how arguments for and against charter schools resonated with liberals and conservatives. Some survey participants were told that charter schools were more likely to employ nonunion teachers when asked about their support of the schools, while others were told that charter schools were operated by for-profit companies. Another group acted as a control.Groups against the expansion of charter schools typically argue that charter schools serve to privatize public education, thereby exacerbating existing inequalities. Supporters of charter schools, on the other hand, say that they offer parents a choice, and that employing nonunion teachers can help spur innovation.
The researchers found that self-reported conservatives were more likely to express support for charter schools when they learned that these schools employed nonunStudy Finds Pro-Charter School Arguments Are More Convincing: