Education Law

Another interesting poll

Last week, we talked about some new information courtesy of a Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll, titled “America Speaks Out,” which included how the public feels about NCLB, charter schools, and teacher pay, just to name a few of the findings.  A new study from Education Next was released today, and it turns out that the American public still has a lot of questions about education.

“The Persuadable Public“ study reveals that when it comes to school governance, mayoral control, and school board elections, there’s quite a bit of uncertainty.  Regarding charter schools, they asked:

“Many states permit the formation of charter schools, which are publicly funded but are not managed by the local school board. These schools are expected to meet promised objectives, but are exempt from many state regulations. Do you support or oppose the formation of charter schools?”  Nationally, 44% said they neither supported or opposed, with 25% saying they somewhat supported.

Mayoral control was another issue.  They asked:
“In some communities that have a large percentage of low-performing public school students, the mayors have taken control over the entire public school system to attempt to correct the situation. If the public schools in your community had a large percentage of low-performing students, would you favor or oppose having the mayor take control over the schools?”  The highest percentage response was “neither favor or oppose” with 32% of the responses.

The final example we’ll cherry pick was,
“Many school board elections are held at a time different from other elections; and very little information is easily available about the candidates in most school board elections. As a result, only a small fraction of the American public tends to vote in these elections. Do you remember for sure whether you voted in the last school board election?”  Nationally 38% said they voted for school board election, which was the highest response, but 35% said they did not vote, and 24% said they did not know or couldn’t remember.

We pulled a few examples that are near and dear to our hearts here at BoardBuzz, but we know you’re curious.  To see how America is easily persuaded, check out the nine page full report.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).