A month before the 2026 election, the Marquette Law School Poll shows candidates for governor neck-and-neck — poll director Charles Franklin explained where voters stand and why. Enrollment caps for private school choice vouchers in Wisconsin have officially ended, and Jason Stein of the Wisconsin Policy Forum considers what it means for the state’s program.

Charles Franklin
Director, Marquette Law School Poll

• The Marquette poll released Sept. 30 shows that among likely voters in the election for governor, Democratic candidate David Crowley has 49% support and Republican candidate Tom TIffany with 46%. The poll also found record low job approval for President Donald Trump, with 38% of respondents approving and 60% disapproving. Franklin said the president is so far not a big drag on his endorsed Republican candidate.
• Franklin: “If this was just a referendum on the president, then Crowley would be leading by 22 points. It’s obviously not anything like that. And that just drives home the fact that an actual election between a particular pair of candidates is different from your general opinion about the president or the state of the economy or the nation. What we’re seeing is partisans aligning very strongly behind their party’s candidates, and that’s now equally true of Republicans and Democrats and independents leaning towards Crowley, but with an awful lot undecided.”

Jason Stein
President, Wisconsin Policy Forum

• Enrollment limits came off at the start of the 2026-27 school year for Wisconsin’s Private School Choice Programs. These programs allow K4-12 students to attend participating private schools with a state-funded voucher for tuition. In the 2025-26 school year, Wisconsin spent more than $700 million funding the programs, with about 60,000 students participating. School districts are allowed to levy additional property taxes to offset the private school payments. Stein said the program could expand to new districts.
• Stein: “I think what you can think about is the short-term implications are modest, but the long-term implications could be very big. So in 2015, we sort of switched the cap for the statewide program in the budget that year, and we added 1% of students a year. And so last year it was at 10%, was the cap. This year that comes off. Now, of the 421 districts statewide, only three districts — Manitowoc, Watertown, and West Allis/West Milwaukee — were at that 10% cap in the most recent data. Of those, maybe West Allis/West Milwaukee, because it’s close to Milwaukee and all those choice schools in Milwaukee could probably have the most impact. But long-term, it could affect many other districts that aren’t yet at the cap.”

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