Poll shows education top issue for voters

Education remains the top issue for Tennesseans in this year’s gubernatorial election, according to a new statewide poll released Friday.

The poll, conducted by the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), found one out of five respondents listed education as the answer to an open-ended question on what is most important, while one out of four parents offered it as the answer.

“SCORE regularly conducts surveys about voter views on education issues, and it is clear from the latest results that Tennessee voters understand the importance of public education, especially as providing a foundation for success after high school,” SCORE President David Mansouri said in a statement.

One out of five listed education as the answer to a question on what is most important.

“Voters also are eager to hear candidates for governor talk about the policies they favor for improving education in Tennessee.”

The poll, commissioned by the education-focused nonprofit, was conducted Dec. 14-17 by the firms Fabrizio, Lee & Associates and Beneson Strategy group. The two firms interviewed 500 likely Republican primary voters and 501 likely Democratic primary voters, respectively.

The survey found that 61 percent of Republican respondents and 56 percent of Democratic respondents — both 10 percent more than noted in a July survey — believe high school graduates are not prepared for college or the workforce. This belief was held across party lines.

While the issues of expanded pre-K opportunities and school choice received varied response across party lines, but most respondents were supportive of both.

Also, Democratic and Republican primary voters supported increased teacher pay and expanded efforts to increase the number of Tennesseans with a post secondary education, improving early literacy rates and improving training for principals.

“In an era of intense political polarization, Democratic and Republican 2018 primary voters in Tennessee show remarkable agreement regarding the importance of education and the substantial role they want education to play in this year’s gubernatorial campaign,” pollsters Tony Fabrizio of Fabrizio, Lee & Associates and Shira Angert of Benenson Strategy Group said in a jointly written memo.

This agreement among both Democratic and Republican respondents was also evident in a gubernatorial forum hosted by SCORE, Belmont University, the USA Today Network-Tennessee and the NewsChannel5 Network at Belmont’s Curb Event Center on Monday.

All interviews were conducted by telephone or cellphone and the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.