Charter Schools: Public Opinion in Missouri

By: Abigail Medler

Published On: June 23, 2025

Figure 1: Likely Voters Support the Operation of Charter Schools Across Missouri

Responses to “(Public) charter schools should be allowed to operate in all parts of the state?”

Missouri is home to 37 Charter Local Education Agencies (LEAs)—20 in Kansas City and 17 in St. Louis. In 2024, Missouri charter schools educated around 25,000 students. Charter schools are public schools, free from tuition and fees, that operate in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas of Missouri. Charter schools are sponsored or “authorized” not by the state, but rather by an entity that grants a charter and provides accountability. There are currently seven charter school sponsors in Missouri—Saint Louis University is one of them. More information about Missouri charter schools can be found at https://dese.mo.gov/quality-schools/charter-schools. 

In the June 2020 SLU/YouGov poll, 53% of respondents said they supported the formation of charter schools, while 24% opposed and 23% remained unsure about their formation. Four times since, likely voters have been asked if they agree or disagree with the prompt “Charter schools should be allowed to operate in all parts of the state.” A majority of likely voters have continually supported the operation of charter schools across Missouri (See Figure 1).

Figure 2: Likely Voters Describe Charter Schools as Private Schools

Responses to “Would you describe charter schools as public schools or private schools?"

There was slightly more support in the July 2021 and August 2022 polls, but it is worth noting that question variation may have played a part as the prompt on those polls read “Public charter schools should be allowed to operate in all parts of the state”, and the answer choices were agree/disagree rather than support/oppose, which may have contributed to higher favorability. As noted above, charter schools are public schools, but a majority of Missourians may not be aware. In the June 2020 poll and the most recent February 2025 poll, a majority of respondents identified charter schools as private schools, which may have influenced their opinion (Figure 2). This uncertainty may also account for the 25% of “Not Sure” responses across the four polls in the above Figure.

Moreover, the August 2023 and February 2025 polls asked a slight variation of the question: “Charter schools should be allowed to operate in my school district.” This prompt yielded nearly identical results, with 52% and 55% support, respectively. However, the August 2023 poll also asked whether voters thought people in their local communities would support charter schools in Missouri and in their school district. Here, the result was only 39 and 38 percent support, respectively, with a much higher degree of uncertainty (42% and 38%). This seems reasonable; people are far more likely to be sure of their own opinions rather than the opinions of people in their communities.

The support for charter schools overall is largely driven by higher levels of support from Republicans and Independents. In the most recent February 2025 poll, while overall support for charter schools’ operation throughout the state of Missouri was 55%, this measure received just 39% support from Democrats. Republicans and Independents more heavily favor charter school operation by a wide margin (64% and 60% support, respectively).

For more on charter schools and voter preferences, see here.

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