A new poll out today reaffirms the obvious: Voters are really worried about their pocketbooks. Education ranks third as the most important issue this year, behind gas prices, and jobs and the economy, according to a poll taken last month by Lake Research Partners and sponsored by the Public Education Network.

If you read the poll more closely, you can find some interesting nuggets about adults’ attitudes toward the No Child Left Behind Act. (The most detailed polling information is in the PowerPoint presentation found here). First, adults don’t seem to be nearly as opposed to the law as some presidential candidates may make you think (although both John McCain and Barack Obama seem to agree with the goal of NCLB, but want some big changes). About one-third of those polled think the law is hurting schools, one-third think it’s helping, and the rest think it’s making no difference.

The folks who are the most positive about the law are Republicans (no surprise there), Latinos, and blacks.

So who seems to hate NCLB the most? White independents.

They even beat out Democrats. And if you remember, the Democratic candidates during the primary used NCLB as their favorite punching bag.

Forty percent of adults who classified themselves as political “independents” (the highest rate of disapproval) thought the law is hurting schools, compared to 32 percent of Democrats and 28 percent of Republicans.