Californians Very Concerned About Schools and Budget--Want Education Protected From Cuts

“For students who initially fail the California High School Exit Exam, would you favor or oppose requiring their local schools to provide them with smaller English and math class sizes taught by fully credentialed teachers until they pass the test, even if it costs the state more money?” Supported 66% to 31% and by 59% to 38% amongst likely voters.

“One idea that has been suggested for improving the graduation rate among students in lower-income areas is to increase the number of school support staff, such as counselors, mentors, and social workers. Would you favor or oppose this idea, even if it cost the state more money?” Supported 68% to 29% and 60% to 37% amongst likely voters.

“Should local schools in lower-income areas provide additional training and professional development to teachers, even if it costs the state more money?” Supported 72% to 25% and 65% to 32% amongst likely voters.

58% of likely voters would support a hypothetical local bond measure for school construction projects but only 45% would support a local measure to increase property taxes.

Governor and Legislature Receive Low Marks for Job Performance and on Education

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s job approval ratings have plummeted to 41% approval and 48% disapproval by Californians and 45% to 44% approval from likely voters. This is a decrease of 16% since December. In the year he proclaimed as the “Year of Education,” He gets even lower marks on his performance on K-12 education with 56% disapproval and 25% approval and virtually the same marks from likely voters. Even Republicans are disapproving of his handling of education by a margin of 43% to 37% with independents disapproving 52% to 30% and Democrats by a lopsided 67% to 18%.

The Legislature is disapproved in its overall job performance 58% to 26% and by an even larger 66% to 22% by likely votes. Disapproval here is highest by Republicans –68% to 18%, but high with Democrats as well, 58% to 28%. The legislature does best amongst independents, with a 52% to 31% disapproval.

These figures are for the generic legislature. The survey did not ask how folks feel about their own legislator—if they know who they are. One figure that caught my attention from the questions published at the end of the poll was that when asked “Do you think of yourself as closer to the Republican Party or Democratic Party?” the results were 47% Democratic, 22 Republican, and 22% neither and 9% professing to not know.

On education, the legislature gets 21% approval and receives 61% disapproval and an anemic 14% approval from likely votes and 66% disapproval. Once again, there is no information as to whether voters are disapproving of their own legislators and who they are the most unhappy with or the reasons for these numbers.

Education Reform

When asked “Overall, do you think the K-12 public education system in California is in need of major changes, minor changes, or that it is basically fine the way it is?” the results are quite striking. Only 8% of Californians and 5% of likely voters think the system is basically fine the way it is. With likely votes, 67% say major changes are needed and another 25% say minor changes are needed. The change response by voters is a combined 92%.

While many Californians have concerns over the quality of education, they give good grades to their local schools. Amongst all Californians, 18% give their local schools an “A,” 36% a “B,” 27% a “C” and only 10% a “D” or 4% an “F.” Public school parents feel even better about their local schools with 27% giving an “A” and 40% a “B.” That translates to a 2.5 grade average from Californians and a 2.8 average from public school parents.

The approach favored by Californians appears to be increased funding with better use of existing funds.

When asked: “In general, do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Additional state funding would lead to higher quality K-12 education in California,” by a 63% to 35% margin, Californians agreed. When asked: “In general, do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Better use of existing state funds would lead to higher quality K-12 education in California,”85% agreed.

44% agree that the dual approach of increasing funding and making better use of state funds is the best method for improving the schools. Add to this the 8% who believe in increasing state spending alone, and you have a majority of 52% who favor increased spending. 44% favor only using existing funds more wisely.

Any way you cut it, on the general question of who should have the most control in deciding how money from the state of California should be spent on local schools, the local school districts—or teachers and principals—are chosen. Only 15% say state government should have the most control. 46% of Californians say this should lie with local school districts and another 34% with teachers and principals. The results are fairly uniform with likely voters, by party, and other subgroups.

As mentioned before, there is a concern Californians have about resource equity in the distribution of funds to lower income areas of the state, a desire that lower income areas get more of any additional funding, support for more funding for schools that have more English language learners or students with disabilities, funding these even if it costs the state more, increased counselors and other support staff for schools with high dropout rates (even if it costs the state more), and the same for additional training and professional development of teachers in lower income areas—even if it costs the state more money.

There is strong support for the requirement that students pass a statewide test in order to graduate from high school—at a level of 72% to 26% that has remained virtually the same for 4 years that this survey has been taken. But there is great concern over the higher failure rate on the high school exit exam by students from lower income areas—50% of Californians were “very” concerned about this and another 34% were somewhat concerned, combining to 84%—versus only 15% who were not too concerned or not concerned at all. By a 66% to 31% margin, increased state funding was supported in responses to this question: “For students who initially fail the California High School Exit Exam, would you favor or oppose requiring their local schools to provide them with smaller English and math class sizes taught by fully credentialed teachers until they pass the test, even if it costs the state more money?” Similar results were given to questions about English language learners and extra assistance to them—“even if it means they receive more assistance than other students”—by a margin of 69% to 28%. This includes overwhelming majorities by Democrats, independents, and, yes, even Republicans by a slightly smaller margin of 54% to 31%.

As to the most important goal of California’s K-12 public schools, when asked to identify just one goal, 35% chose preparing students for college, 17% preparing them for the workforce, 15% teaching the basics, 15% teaching life skills, 13% preparing them to be good citizens, and 4% volunteered other or all of the above. A much higher 47% of public school parents identified preparing students for college as the number one goal.

Californians and public school parents by lopsided margins approximating 90% feel it is important that the state collect and make available information about public schools including resources and student performance. By a 59% to 36% margin all Californians support increase state funding for development of a data system for this, although the margin is a closer 50% to 45% with likely voters.

Nevertheless, 50% of public school parents feel they have just enough information about the grading and test score system used by their local public school and 25% feel they have more than enough.

Conclusion

The PPIC survey plumbs some of the depths of Californian’s attitudes towards the state’s schools and rings loud and clear that there are concerns over the public education system—improving it and making it more equal across all strata of our society. Californians want education protected from budget cuts and this is a priority for them. In fact, in a number of instances, they want increased funding. There is ambivalence about who to pay for this—with a divided electorate about increasing taxes that individual respondents pay, but support for increasing taxes on the wealthiest Californians.

This is an accurate snapshot of responses to questions posed between April 8 and 22 with a low margin of error of 2 to 3%--and timely as we enter the most difficult state budget negotiations since perhaps as far back as 1992. Since the poll was taken, the economy and jobs—the most important issue identified –by 36% of those questioned—has worsened. So too has the state budget deficit with numbers such as a $20 billion shortfall mentioned by the Governor in the last few days—significantly higher than others reported.

PPIC President and CEO Mark Baldassare said in releasing this survey: “There’s incredible concern about the budget crisis and its impact on schools. People are uneasy with the way we make decisions about education, but they haven’t changed their views on how involved they should be in paying for it. That leaves the key question unanswered: How do we improve the quality of public schools?”

Good questions. Stay tuned, as hopefully the reality of the budget becomes more vivid and real for Californians rather than being a troubling concept.