D.C. Residents Support Mayor’s Sweeping K-12 Education Reforms, New Poll Shows
Majority of residents support Mayor Fenty’s attempts to improve District of Columbia Public Schools, including controversial firings of central office staff
One year into their controversial effort to turn around one of the nation’s most troubled public school systems, District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and his Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee are receiving high marks from local voters, a new poll shows.
A convincing two-thirds of district residents indicated they approved of Mayor Fenty’s work to improve public education since officially taking responsibility for the district’s 65,000-student public school system in June 2007, according to the poll commissioned by the New York-based nonprofit Education Reform Now. (Find details of the poll here.)
Mayor Fenty’s strong performance on education is bolstering his overall high approval ratings. In the poll, 79% of respondents indicated they had a “favorable” or “very favorable” impression of the mayor overall.
Upon gaining statutory responsibility for DCPS last June, Fenty moved quickly to hire Michelle Rhee as chancellor. Despite being a relatively unknown commodity in the city – and despite her controversial push to rid the school system of ineffective employees – a majority of respondents (55%) said they approved of the job Rhee was doing as chancellor.
In one of the most surprising elements of the poll, respondents were asked about the controversial March 6th firing by Rhee of 98 DCPS employees under her newly-won ability to classify non-unionized central office workers as “at will” employees. The change was requested by Fenty and Rhee and approved by the City Council.
Two-thirds of respondents indicated they supported Rhee’s argument that she was attempting to establish a culture of accountability in the school system – 28% of respondents were opposed to the firings.
A majority of the poll respondents described the overall quality of the DC schools as “poor,” said they believe that public charter schools are a good idea, and that working and poor parents should be given financial assistance in the form of a voucher to send their children to a school of their choice.
While K-12 education issues have rarely penetrated the political agenda on the national level this year, district respondents listed “improving public education” as the second most-pressing issue, right behind “jobs and the economy.”
Results were based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Lester & Associates among a city wide sample of 500 adults, 18 years of age or older, from June 12-14, 2008. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus or minus 4.5% percentage points. In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.
New Poll Shows Harlem Wants Better Education Options For Children
Poll Shows 70% of Harlem Residents Want Better School Options; 59% Feel Neighborhood Children Are Not Getting The Education they Deserve
Harlem Rally Demonstrates Strong Support For Public Charter Schools
NEW YORK - Most neighborhood residents of Harlem—70%—crave better school options for their children, and 59% believe that neighborhood children are not currently getting the education that they need and deserve, according to a new poll conducted by Washington-based Democratic pollster Ron Lester. A rally held in Harlem on March 20, 2008 demonstrated this growing demand for better public school options.
This survey was conducted for Education Reform Now and included 400 residents in Harlem’s 15th Congressional district who said they were “likely” to vote in the November 2008 general election. It was conducted during the period of February 25-26, 2008 and the margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 % at a 95% confidence interval. A voter file was used for the sample and respondents were selected randomly on an equal probability basis. Blacks represented 55% percent of the sample, whites 27%, Latinos 14% and “other” ethnicities 4%.
The poll indicates that residents of Harlem are united in their belief that New York City schoolchildren are not getting the education they deserve. Nearly three-quarters of the poll respondents described the New York City public school system as “fair” or “poor.” Similarly, 74% of respondents believe that public education in their neighborhood needs to be improved by “a lot.”
On March 20, 2008, more than 1400 Harlem charter school parents, students, teachers and supporters attended a rally sponsored by Education Reform Now at Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem to demonstrate their support of public charter schools. Colorado State Senator Peter Groff, Essence founder Edward Lewis and philanthropist Joe Reich were just a few of the city and state leaders in attendance.
New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein gave a speech that brought parents to their feet with a demand to close the achievement gap between the rich and the poor. Kevin Johnson, former NBA star and current candidate for mayor of Sacramento, flew in for the occasion and gave a speech that left audience members insisting that every child deserves a quality public education.
More than 20% of Harlem students currently attend a public charter school. According to this survey, m ore than two-thirds (64%) of respondents know what public charter schools are and 52%, a majority, feel they are a “good idea.” Further, more than 8 in 10 respondents (81%) say “parents should be able to decide where their children attend schools.”
Charter schools are public schools operated independent of the local school district and are free to find innovative approaches to learning.
There will be more than 22 of these innovative, independent public schools open in Harlem next fall – some of which have emerged as some of the highest-performing schools in the city.
Indeed, Harlem is a neighborhood where significantly improving education trumps most other issues which have dominated much of the local, state, and national political debate in recent years. Respondents listed “public education” as the second most important issue facing the next president, after “jobs and the economy.”
Key findings from the poll:
n A majority of Harlem residents (59%) believe that neighborhood children are not currently getting the education they need and deserve. Nearly three-quarters of the poll respondents (74%) described the New York City public school system as “fair” or “poor.”
-- A full 70% of respondents believed that “working and poor parents should be given financial assistance to send their children to a school of their choice.”
-- A majority of Harlem residents (52%) believe that public charter schools are a good idea. The poll showed that while only 15% of respondents believed charter schools were a bad idea, a full third indicated they were unsure.
-- There was no clear consensus on the issue of whether or not public education has improved in Harlem in the last five years – 44% of residents said it had improved either a lot or a little; 36% said “not much” or “not at all.”
-- There was a strong consensus that public education had a long way to go to provide the kind of education kids deserve. Nearly three-quarters (74%) said public education needs to be improved “a lot.” Not a single respondent answered “not at all”; 14% said it needed to be improved “a little”; 1% said “not much.”
Education Reform Now is a nonprofit organization which envisions an America whose commitment to social justice is realized by every child having the social and economic opportunity afforded by a quality public education, regardless of race, gender, geography, or socio-economic status.