Phi Delta Kappa Scared to Ask About Education Tax Credits

The new 2008 PDK/​Gallup poll on education is anti‐​school‐​choice advocacy masquerading as responsible research.

In 1999, the last year PDK/​Gallup asked about education tax credits, 57 percent of the public supported credits to cover the full cost of private school tuition and 65 percent of the public supported tax credits for part of the cost.

Instead of asking clear and informative questions about vouchers and education tax credits in 2008, however, the survey recycles a generic, biased, and discredited question they introduced after support for vouchers began to climb in their own surveys.

The PDK/​Gallup poll now asks about a respondent’s support for “allowing students and parents to choose a private school at public expense.”

This loaded and abstract language is meant to lower what other more balanced polls have shown is deep and widespread support for school choice and for education tax credits in particular.

That’s one reason Georgia passed a new tax credit program this year and why Arizona, Rhode Island, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Florida all recently passed or expanded education tax credit programs with crucial bipartisan support from Democrats.