Voter Support for the MO Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Program
Key Points:
The Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program offers tax-credit scholarships which may be applied to private school tuition and other educational expenses. Scholarship recipients must live in an eligible county or city and meet other requirements, and priority will be given to students with disabilities and low-income students. We polled a representative sample of Missouri voters about support for the program and found:
Fifty-three percent of all respondents supported the program, while 19% opposed the program and 27% were not sure.
Support was highest among nonwhite voters, conservatives, those who currently or previously enrolled their children in private school, and those who identify as religious.
A majority of voters (55%) opposed a current regulation which limits program eligibility to those who live in the state’s most populous areas.
Forty-one percent of voters indicated that no group of students, such as students with disabilities or low-income students, should have priority access to scholarships.
Seven out of 10 voters expressed support for a hypothetical regulation requiring participating private schools to administer the state’s standardized tests.
