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Opposition to School Law Growing, Poll Says
>> American voters are becoming increasingly aware of the No Child Left
>> Behind Act, but a growing minority of them is deciding they don't like
>> it, a new poll sponsored by the Public Education Network and EDUCATION
>> WEEK suggests.
>> http://www.edweek.org/ew/ew_printstory.cfm?slug=30Pen.h23
>>
>> Education Week
>> American Education's Newspaper of Record
>>
>> April 7, 2004
>>
>> Opposition to School Law Growing,
>> Poll Says
>>
>>
>> By Erik W. Robelen
>> Education Week
>>
>> Washington
>>
>> American voters are becoming increasingly aware of the No Child Left
>> Behind Act, but a growing minority of them are deciding they don't
>> like it, a new poll sponsored by the Public Education Network and
>> Education Week suggests.
>>
>> Three-fourths of voters questioned in January said they had heard
>> about the bipartisan law, up from 56 percent who said so in a survey a
>> year earlier.
>>
>>
>> "That's a very significant increase," said Celinda C. Lake, a
>> prominent Democratic pollster and the president of Lake Snell Perry &
>> Associates Inc., the Washington-based firm that conducted the survey,
>> whose results were released here last week. But, she added during an
>> April 1 press conference, "to have found out about No Child Left
>> Behind is not to have become a fan of it."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> The survey report, "Learn . Vote. Act. The Public's Responsibility
>> for Public Education," is available from the Public Education Network.
>> (Requires Adobe's Acrobat Reader.)
>>
>>
>>
>> While supporters still outweighed those who dislike the law, the
>> opposition grew threefold between January 2003 and a year later.
>> Twenty-eight percent of this year's respondents said they opposed the
>> No Child Left Behind Act, compared with 8 percent in the 2003
>> PEN/Education Week poll.
>>
>> The level of support remained relatively steady, dipping slightly from
>> 40 percent of respondents a year ago to 36 percent this year. About
>> one-third this year said they were "not sure" whether they supported
>> or opposed the law. The question did not seek to characterize the
>> federal measure.
>>
>> President Bush has championed the law-which passed Congress by
>> overwhelming majorities in 2001-as a centerpiece of his domestic
>> agenda.
>>
>> A total of 1,050 registered voters were surveyed by telephone for the
>> poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage
>> points. The survey includes an oversampling of 125 African-American
>> voters and 125 Latino voters.
>>
>> See Also...
>>
>> View the accompanying chart, "Voter Reaction to the No Child Left
>> Behind Act."
>>
>>
>> But David H. Winston, a Republican political strategist and the
>> president of the Winston Group, a polling firm in Alexandria, Va.,
>> said the opinion research his group has conducted on the No Child Left
>> Behind Act doesn't bear out the conclusion that more voters are
>> opposing it.
>>
>> "I didn't see any significant increase in favoring or opposing [the
>> law]," he said last week. "It basically stayed where it was."
>>
>> Mr. Winston cautioned that there were some differences in polling
>> technique, both in the phrasing of questions and the sample. His group
>> polled 1,000 registered voters with no oversampling.
>>
>> A December 2002 poll by the Winston Group showed 50 percent of
>> respondents with a favorable impression of "Bush's education reforms,"
>> and 29 percent unfavorable. Results from a January 2004 survey were
>> about the same, with 52 percent favorable and 33 percent unfavorable.
>>
>> That 2004 Winston Group poll also asked the same question using the
>> name "No Child Left Behind Act." With that wording, 54 percent had a
>> favorable impression, and 23 percent an unfavorable one. The poll had
>> a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
>>
>>
>> 'Sin' Taxes for Education
>> The fifth annual PEN/Education Week poll, funded by a grant from the
>> MetLife Foundation, also examined how education stacks up against
>> other concerns, how it might play in the presidential race, and how
>> voters view taxes for schools.
>>
>> It found that the "economy and jobs" was the top national concern of
>> voters, with education ranking second. Out of 11 possible choices, the
>> "economy and jobs" was selected by 27 percent of voters and education
>> by 15 percent.
>>
>> "In the wake of September 11 ... the public continues to see education
>> as a top priority," said Wendy D. Puriefoy, the president of the
>> Public Education Network. Based in Washington, PEN is an organization
>> of local education funds and individuals that seeks to promote
>> community engagement in public schools.
>>
>> Education is an important consideration for a majority of voters when
>> weighing candidates for president, according to the survey.
>>
>> Nearly 60 percent of respondents said they would be "somewhat more" or
>> "much more" likely to vote for a presidential candidate who promised
>> to make education "the centerpiece of their administration."
>>
>> The poll suggests voters are divided on President Bush's performance
>> when it comes to public education. Thirty-five percent of respondents
>> said the president was doing a "good" job, and 10 percent said
>> "excellent." Meanwhile, 27 percent said he was doing a "just fair" job
>> and 25 percent a "poor" job regarding public education.
>>
>> Voters were also asked about their views on tax and budgetary matters.
>> Sixty percent said they believed public schools did not receive enough
>> federal aid. Education was the top item respondents said they would
>> want to protect from cuts if their states faced budget reductions,
>> with nearly half selecting that area of spending.
>>
>> Consistent with previous years' polling data, the respondents
>> expressed a willingness to pay higher taxes to improve public
>> education. Fifty-nine percent were either "very willing" or "somewhat
>> willing" to do so.
>>
>> In probing the issue further, however, the poll found respondents
>> disinclined to choose federal income taxes or local property taxes as
>> their favored approach.
>>
>> To examine how voters would raise extra funds for education, the
>> survey listed six categories-five that focused on higher taxes and one
>> on cutting spending elsewhere-and asked respondents to identify which
>> they would be "most likely" to support, and then to provide a second
>> choice.
>>
>> The most popular approach was increasing taxes on alcohol and tobacco,
>> followed by increasing taxes on families that earn more than $300,000
>> per year. Coming in third was higher taxes on corporations.
>>
>> Ms. Lake said such preferences shouldn't be too surprising.
>>
>> "Sure, their favorite taxes are sin taxes, taxes on the wealthy,
>> corporate taxes," she said. "But that doesn't mean they wouldn't have
>> supported a tax of another nature." She emphasized that 60 percent
>> said they would pay more in taxes generally for education.
>>
>> "You know, they're real Americans," Ms. Lake added. "They don't love
>> tax increases. But I think, across the board, these are pretty robust
>> findings."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On the Web
>>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> The Public Education Network offers a variety of national polls and
>> reports concerning public education, including "Demanding Quality
>> Public Education in Tough Economic Times: What Voters Want from
>> Elected Leaders," February 2003. (Requires Adobe's Acrobat Reader.)
>> The report "Bush's Budget Fails Education: An Issue by Issue Analysis
>> of how Bush Misses the Mark," from the Campaign for America's Future
>> discusses the hits and misses of NCLB.
>>
>> The Brookings Institution offers a perspective on education politics
>> and policy in "No Child Left Behind and the 2004 Campaign," by Tom
>> Loveless, January 2004.
>>
>> The Center for the Child Care Workforce offers "2004 Outlook: Issues
>> to Watch," highlighting initiaves that might affect early care and
>> education programs for children. (Requires Adobe's Acrobat Reader.)
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>> © 2003 Editorial Projects in Education Vol. 23, number 30, page 22,
>> 27
>>
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