Republican Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Tallahassee Takeover of Local Public Schools

Second poll confirms likely Republican primary voters oppose House and Senate leadership’s SB 6 public school measure by a wide margin

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April 2, 2010 Contact: Mark Pudlow, 850.201.3223 or 850.508.9756

See poll results          |    political environment graphic

Tallahassee – Following last week’s hurried effort by Republican Senate leaders to drastically take over the control of local public schools and the current public school teacher compensation system, the Florida Education Association released findings from a statewide survey highlighting that Republican voters overwhelmingly oppose their party leaders’ approach.

A statewide survey of 600 registered Republican voters who are likely to vote in the August Florida Republican primary was conducted March 26-29 with a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

“Nearly three-quarters of voters believe we should keep the current system of evaluating teachers,” said David Beattie, the pollster who conducted the survey. “Across the board, voters are less likely to support the reforms upon hearing, ‘It takes away power of local school districts to make decisions and give it to the state Legislature.’”

Republican primary parents love their children’s public school teachers and generally like public school teachers. Additionally, voters feel strongly that local control of public school matters.

Beattie added: “The changes being proposed in Tallahassee fly in the face of what voters believe about public schools, and the more publicized the reform package gets, the more there will be push-back by parents and local communities.”

The statewide survey mirrors results announced earlier this week from a Mason-Dixon poll that showed Floridians, by a 48-39 percent margin oppose the Senate Republican leadership package.

Beattie concludes: “It is clear that Republican primary voters have no appetite for Tallahassee taking over local public schools and the decrease in classroom funding to pay for new tests are strong reasons to oppose the reform.”

A copy of the poll findings and summary memorandum are attached.