Simply calling oneself an “education candidate” is apparently no longer good enough to get elected.
That’s one of the findings of a poll recently commissioned by the Public Education Network and Education Week, and the subject of this latest “Close Up” look at the poll results. Almost 90 percent of the registered voters who responded to the survey said the politicians they were most likely to support understand education issues, believe most decisions about schooling should be made by parents and teachers, and will stand firm on education funding in the face of budget cutbacks.
In the survey, titled “Accountability for All: What Voters Want From Education Candidates,” 86 percent of the 800 respondents said an emphasis on the basics of reading, writing, and mathematics was another hallmark of a candidate they would vote for on Election Day.
PEN and Education Week sponsored the second annual telephone poll, which gauged the public’s views on education following last September’s terrorist attacks and amid the nationwide economic slowdown. The poll found that Americans believe true education candidates are those who prove their commitment to education through their day-to-day voting records.
The poll, conducted in January, has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. (“Poll: Public Sees Schools as a Priority,” April 24, 2002.)
—Linda Jacobson
“Accountability for All: What Voters Want From Education Candidates” is available on the Web at www.publiceducation.org/cgi- bin/downloadmanager/publications/p105.asp. (Requires free registration and Adobe’s Acrobat Reader.)
The Public Education Network- Education Week Poll
SOURCE: “Accountabilit y for All: What Voters Want From Education Candidates”
