New Polling Shows Huge Support and Almost No Opposition to Charter Schools in Michigan

A new statewide poll by the Marketing Resource Group (MRG) shows strong and growing support for charter schools in Michigan, and most noteworthy, almost no opposition.

The latest poll, taken in March as part of a multi-question poll by MRG, asked Michigan residents, “Do you favor or oppose charter schools in Michigan?” The statewide results showed that 63% of residents favor charter schools, while only 12% oppose them. Of that number, only 4% strongly oppose charter schools.

“That’s the remarkable number,” said Dan Quisenberry, President of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA), the state charter school association. “There’s been polling on this question for a long time, and the favorable numbers have always been strong. What’s remarkable is that the unfavorable numbers have dropped dramatically.”

For almost two decades, MRG has been polling Michigan residents on the question of whether they support or oppose charter schools. The poll is taken every two years, and in 2024, the numbers showed 60% favored charters and 30% opposed.

“The favorable number went up slightly, but the unfavorable number dropped 18 points,” Quisenberry said. “That 12% unfavorable number is far and away the lowest we’ve ever seen. That shows us that people have been paying attention to the successes that charter schools have had. Charter schools have been around in Michigan for 32 years now. They’re no longer just a great concept; they’re a proven part of the K-12 educational landscape in Michigan.”

Quisenberry said that some people might have been skeptical of charter schools early on, but the more they’ve seen the evidence of success, they’ve been won over.

“We know that politicians and power brokers pay close attention to these numbers,” Quisenberry said. “The vast majority of people favor charter schools and almost nobody opposes them anymore. We can hopefully get past the politics now and work on making every school in Michigan the best that it can be.”

Digging deeper into the 2026 polling, you’ll see that every subgroup – geographically and politically – shows strong and growing support for charter schools. The favorable number is above 50 percent for every single group. Among the percentage of people who favor charters:

• Saginaw/Flint – 61% favor
• Thumb – 66% favor
• Detroit – 67% favor
• Oakland County - 64% favor
• Macomb County - 61% favor
• Mid-Michigan - 54% favor
• West Michigan - 70% favor
• Northern Michigan - 70% favor
• Democrats - 59% favor (up 9.5 points from 2024)
• Republicans - 75% favor (up 13.8 points)
• African-Americans - 60% favor (up 16.8 points)

The MRG poll also asked voters if a candidate’s stance on charter schools would make you more likely or less likely to vote for that person.

The poll showed that it makes a significant difference to some voters: 46% of people said they’d be more likely to support a candidate who supports charters (up from 22.8% in 2024), while just 13% said they’d be more likely to support a candidate who opposes charters (down from 15.4% in 2024).

“It’s an election year, and I’m sure the politicians are paying attention to those numbers, too,” Quisenberry said.

Another question in the MRG poll asked whether people thought that Michigan needed more charter schools. Overall, 61% of people said that Michigan needed more charter schools, while a whopping 67% of people in Detroit held that opinion. Currently, about half the students in Detroit attend charter schools.