Florida has a liberal Supreme Court, with five of its seven members appointed by Democratic governors, said Lawrence Kenny, a UF economics professor who recently analyzed the results of studies on vouchers.
Much has been made of the importance of the Florida ruling because other states have provisions similar to Florida's constitution requiring that public education be "uniform," but in Wisconsin, a state with such a "uniformity" clause, the state Supreme Court upheld vouchers in 1992, Kenny said.
He also noted that vouchers were unlikely to be overturned in Ohio, where the state Supreme Court in 1999 had approved its current school voucher program, and in Washington D.C., whose voucher program was approved by Congress.
Republicans are more supportive of vouchers because of their faith in markets and private institutions, believing competition from private schools makes education more efficient, Kenny said.
Democrats, in contrast, are more likely to oppose vouchers because they have greater confidence in the public sector and are politically aligned with teacher unions, he said.
And conservative Republicans are more likely than moderate Republicans to favor vouchers because they are most bullish on the marketplace, Kenny said.
Vouchers also fare better in precincts with problem-plagued schools, fewer teachers, legislators who receive smaller contributions from teacher unions and larger numbers of students already enrolled in private schools, he said.
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