The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on “Ready for Change”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on the just-published study I coauthored with Verne Kennedy of Market Research Insight:

The survey by the Show-Me Institute found that 67 percent of Missourians support the tax credit proposal. Among African-Americans, support for scholarships stood at 77 percent, according to the poll conducted on behalf of the institute by Market Research Insight, based in Florida.

The polling showed that the support for tax credits is grounded in disenchantment with the state’s public schools.

As the Post-Dispatch notes, one of the most important findings of the poll is that minorities support many parental choice policies by wider margins than whites do. Minorities stand to lose the most from failure to reform the public schools. And those who oppose parental choice haven’t offered any solutions to the problem. For example, here State Rep. Judy Baker is quoted in the Columbia Daily Tribune describing the course of action she believes the state should take:

"Next year, we need to talk about evidence-based interventions, things that really work. It may take a change of leadership before that happens, but we’re losing a lot of ground in the meantime."

Minority families in Saint Louis are told to wait till "next year," or for another "change in leadership," never mind that the Saint Louis Public Schools have already gone through a handful of superintendents in the past few years. Our poll shows that minorities don’t believe these empty promises.