AJC Poll Shows Opposition to Opportunity School District
Just over two weeks away from Election Day, the Atlanta Journal Constitution released new polling that for the first time measures approval of the proposed Opportunity School District that voters will decide on in Amendment 1. The AJC poll does not test the ballot question itself. Instead, the poll question attempted to provide additional context on what the measure would do:
The Georgia ballot includes a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to take control of persistently low performing schools. Supporters say the state will improve student performance in these schools and will be more flexible than local districts. Opponents say the amendment would eliminate local decision-making and create more bureaucracy. If the election was being held today, how would you vote, yes in favor of this amendment, or no against the amendment?
On the ballot, voters will see this question:
Provides greater flexibility and state accountability to fix failing schools through increasing community involvement.[
Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance?
34% of those polled said they would vote in favor of the amendment, while 59% would vote no. 8% remain undecided. The measure drew the least support from Republicans and those in metro Atlanta. Relative support was stronger among men, independents, those without college degrees, and those living in the southwest part of the state, however the story notes that support in these groups never went above 50%. The poll was taken earlier this week of likely voters and the margin of error is 4.26%.
In addition to polling the Opportunity School District, the AJC found Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton 44% to 42%, within the poll’s margin of error. (crosstabs) In the Senate race, Johnny Isakson leads Jim Barksdale by a 47% to 32% margin among likely voters. Libertarian Allen Buckley receives 11% support. (crosstabs)
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Jon Richards
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Okay. Seriously now… What exactly do the people opposing this want?
What is the spending per student difference in the low performing schools versus the top performing schools?
I’ll tell you what I want.
Higher qualification standards for teachers and administrators.
Some- any- qualifications standards for school board members.
Revise evaluation procedures for teachers and administrators.
Revisit procedures for special needs kids. (This is federal.)
Recognize that many kids in failing schools are coming from stressful environments and require additional attention if we are going to try to teach them.
That’s a start.
Teachers would freak the freak out if did all that. D’s would absolutely oppose.
What would the evaluation procedures be? Not so test-based? Would existing teachers have to meet the higher qualifications w/in some window of time? I agree with everything you said. Are the teachers’ unions the only ones preventing this? What’s the deal?
And that last one? About kids in failing schools and stressful environments? In this Trumpian GOP we seem to be in now, that might be a hard sell.
Why would they vote away local control of their taxes? Why would the majority of the rural school systems want the powers that be in Atlanta telling them how to educate their kids? (They technically already do, but I digress…) It’s the reasons I hear about why they are voting no. It’s not about money.