Poll Finds Mixed Support for Public Schools

While most Californians strongly back the public schools, many middle-class white residents have become ambivalent and form a politically important swing vote whose concerns must be heeded if educators are to maintain a working majority of support, a new poll says.

Californians in general give their local public schools mediocre marks, but nearly eight in 10 believe that schools can improve, and more than eight in 10 say the state has a duty to provide a good education for all children, according to the poll unveiled Wednesday by a coalition of nonprofit foundations and educational reform groups.

However, a key segment of the population--mainly better educated, more affluent white males--is on the fence about public schools. Accounting for about a quarter of the state’s adults, this group strongly backs the teaching of basic English and math and skills important for success on the job, but is unwilling to pay for services such as after-school child care or campus health clinics, said pollster Vince Breglio, who helped conduct the survey on behalf of the California Public Education Partnership.

The poll offers one of the most in-depth looks ever at California’s attitudes toward its public schools. Sponsors of the poll, called “Priority One: Schools That Work,” hope to use it to influence policies and reforms throughout the state. The poll used the answers of 2,207 Californians on a variety of issues to break the state into five groups according to their attitudes.

Two clusters of the state’s adults, accounting for about 45% of the population, generally support the schools and want to spend more to make sure they offer a wide variety of classes and services. Two other groups, which make up about a third of residents, are either unhappy with the public schools or disinterested in them.

But the middle group, labeled “basics plus complex skills” by the pollsters, is up for grabs.

Unfortunately for the public schools, the potential influence of this group is magnified by the fact that its members vote with a high frequency.

Breglio said educators must utilize a common political campaign strategy and emphasize different aspects of what they do to different groups. “That’s politics, pure and simple,” Breglio said.

Day Higuchi, president-elect of the United Teachers-Los Angeles union, said aspects of the poll are reassuring. But, he said, “it’s quite clear that we have our political work cut out for us.”

He said he was particularly concerned about the finding that 42% of the poll’s respondents believe that using public tax money to allow children to attend private schools is either a good or excellent idea. That means, he said, that “nearly half of the people in the state . . . are discontented enough with schools to be willing to try something that would be fairly destructive.”

The poll indicates that improving schools is far more important to residents than cutting taxes, by a margin of 77% to 21%. The only issue that comes close in residents’ minds is fighting crime, with 44% saying it should be the top priority if they have to choose between law enforcement and education. Even there, however, 51% of the respondents rank education higher.

Those numbers are slightly different in Los Angeles. Asked to choose between education and fighting crime as their top priority, the respondents were exactly split, with 48% choosing each.

The poll’s sponsors include several reform groups, such as the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project and the Los Angeles Educational Partnership.