VCU Commonwealth Education Poll Shows Strong Public Support for School Funding Despite State Budget Crunch

By Mike Porter

With state budget cuts on the horizon for the upcoming session of the General Assembly, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Commonwealth Education Poll finds 68 percent of Virginians willing to pay more in taxes in order to keep public schools at current funding levels, and 28 percent of Virginians are not willing to pay more in taxes for the schools.

"While throwing money at issues never seems to be a desire of Virginians, the public clearly believes that funding for K-12 education should not be compromised,“ said William C. Bosher, Jr., executive director, Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute.

The poll also finds about six in 10 Virginians say they are willing to pay more in taxes to keep mental health services (62 percent) and aid to low income families (61 percent) at current program levels. Willingness to pay more in taxes was divided when it comes to transportation, with 48 percent willing to pay more and 46 percent not willing to pay more in taxes for transportation. Overall, 46 percent are willing to pay more in taxes for higher education, and 49 percent are not willing to pay more taxes for this. When it comes to prisons, 24 percent are willing to pay more in taxes while 68 percent are not willing to do so.

These findings are part of a new statewide survey conducted by VCU. The Commonwealth Education Poll was conducted by telephone with 1,002 adults from Dec. 22 through Dec. 29, 2008. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. This is the ninth annual Commonwealth Education Poll, conducted by VCU’s Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute (CEPI).

Other survey findings:

• School Funding Matters. Seven in 10 Virginians believe that the amount of money spent on the schools affects education quality a great deal or quite a lot. A similar proportion (71 percent) say that state funding cuts for education would bring major changes to schools in their community; 21 percent say schools in their area would continue pretty much as now if funding were cut.

• Opposition to Four-Day School Week. A majority of Virginians are opposed to the idea of a four-day school week, especially if it involves reduced instruction time for students. Eight in 10 Virginians oppose a proposal to use a four-day school week involving a reduction in instructional hours; 54 percent are opposed to a four-day school week where the total hours of instruction stay the same.

• Opinion about Raising Class Size Depends on the Specifics. Opinion about the effect of an increase in average class size on education quality varies dramatically depending on the question asked. Seven in 10 of those asked about an unspecified increase in average class size believe raising average class size would hurt the quality of education. In contrast, two-thirds of those asked about an increase in average class size by one student say this would not hurt education quality.

• Science Education, Especially at Younger Ages. A plurality of Virginians (43 percent) say the amount of emphasis given to teaching science and math is about right; a third say it is not enough. A plurality says it is most important for schools to increase science education at the elementary school level and a majority believe that more science training at younger ages is the best way to increase the number of high school students interested in science as a career.
  

• Economics Education. A 53 percent majority of Virginians say the local schools do not give enough emphasis to economics, 23 percent say the schools give the right amount of emphasis. A plurality says is it is most important for schools to increase economics education during middle school.

• Opposition to Public Schools for Single-Sex Education. A majority of Virginians oppose the idea of single-sex education in the public schools. Two-thirds of Virginians oppose or strongly oppose public schools for girls only; a similar proportion (65 percent) opposes public schools for boys only.

• Wishing for More. Better than six in 10 Virginians say they wish they had learned more in school about the following topics: business economics (77 percent), computer technology (77 percent), global economic issues (74 percent), science (66 percent), and math (65 percent).

A PDF copy of the report is available at http://www.news.vcu.edu/doc/CEPI-poll-report-1-7-09.pdf.  For a complete list of Commonwealth Education Polls, visit http://www.cepionline.org/.