DFER
Published: 08-07-08
Residents Support Mayor’s Sweeping K-12 Education Reforms Poll Shows
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 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.
“This shows what can happen when you have a mayor who is willing to break some china when it comes to fixing schools” said Joe Williams executive director of the group Democrats for Education Reform. “When the dust settles and the noise from the embattled status quo dies down the public is downright giddy that somebody is finally doing something.”
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.
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 65000-student public school system in June 2007 according to the poll commissioned by the New York-based nonprofit Education Reform Now.
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.
“Doing what’s best for kids is what the citizens want” said Kevin P. Chavous former DC Councilmember and DFER board chairman. “The mayor and chancellor should forge ahead and not let politics or the loud voices of the few to slow them down.”
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.
Based in New York Democrats for Education Reform is a political action committee that supports candidates willing to embrace fundamental reforms of public education systems. For more information see www.dfer.org.
