attitudes of certain parents of elementary school children and their teachers toward various school choice plans

This study investigated the degree of agreement parents and teachers in public and private schools had with full school choice in the form of tuition vouchers. The school choice attitude assessment instrument was developed for this purpose and determined to be reliable. The surveys were administered to 416 volunteer respondents. Significant differences were found in the voucher subscale score obtained from parents and teachers. The parents were more favorable to the concept of school choice F(1, 412) = 10.80, p < .00625. Private school parents and teachers were more positive about school choice than public school parents and teachers, F(1, 412) = 46.63, p < .00625. There was also an interaction between role (parent or teacher) and institution (public or private). The interaction was disordinal; private school teachers had a higher mean than private school parents while public school teachers had a lower mean than public school parents, F(1, 412) = 8.45, p < .00625. The demographic variables of education, age, race, and family income were not significantly related to the voucher subsale score. The demographic variables of education, age, race, and family income were not significantly related to the voucher subsale score. Republicans were found to be more favorable to the concept of school choice than Democrats, F(1, 3) = 3.84, p < .00625. Teacher union members were less favorable toward the concept of full school choice than non-union respondents, F(1, 1) = 67.57, p < .00625. The uniform (with additions) voucher was the most popular, chosen by 38.8% of the respondents. Consequently, full school choice programs in the public schools will probably receive more support from parents than teachers. In the future, full school choice programs will probably originate from outside the public school system.