Poll backs vocational training

Cross-section of Colorado voters in survey also support higher teacher pay

If you wanted to craft a winning educational platform in Colorado, you could do worse than pushing for more vocational training and higher teacher pay.

A new poll by Magellan Strategies found 83 percent of a sample of Colorado registered voters surveyed favored increasing opportunities for vocational education in high school. The idea was popular across subgroups, with at least 80 percent support from men, women, Democrats, Republicans, unaffiliated voters and people in a range of geographic areas and income groups.

There also appeared to be a broad consensus that teachers were underpaid, with nearly three-quarters of those surveyed agreeing with that statement. At least half of every subgroup thought teachers should be paid more, though Republicans were less likely than Democrats or unaffiliated voters to think they were underpaid.

Two-thirds of voters polled said they thought schools were underfunded, but more than half thought they also weren’t managing their money well. Those two ideas aren’t necessarily contradictory, said Ryan Winger, director of data analysis and campaign strategy at Magellan.

“There’s a general perception that school districts aren’t managing their money well because not enough money is getting directly into the classroom — the implication being that too much goes to administration or other costs,” he said in a written response. “So I think a voter could believe that to be the case but still believe that public schools are underfunded.”

The poll didn’t ask respondents’ opinions about specific proposals, however, and it’s possible the consensus could splinter when

voters have to weigh tradeoffs.

State Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Democrat representing Arapahoe County and a member of the education committee, said he anticipates both parties could work together on vocational education next year. This year, the legislature passed a bill establishing a pilot program to give schools full funding when students spend part of their week at internships, and another to expand access to both vocational and college courses in high school, he said.

“There’s more that we can and need to do,” he said. “If you can graduate from high school and get a good job, that’s a win for the student and the state.”

Colorado’s constitution guarantees local control for schools, so voters who want to see teacher pay increase will have to talk to their school boards, unless someone were to push for a ballot question to give the Legislature authority to set teacher pay, Bridges said.

Representatives for Colorado Republicans didn’t respond to calls seeking comment on Monday.

Other issues didn’t have support from a clear majority. Half of voters polled supported vouchers to pay for private-school tuition, while 37 percent opposed them and 13 percent weren’t sure. The poll has a margin of error of about 3.5 percentage points, so actual support for vouchers could be as low as 46.5 percent, or as high as 53.5 percent — and where it falls within that range would be an important question for any politician pushing such a program to ask.

Opinions also were closely divided on whether parents needed more freedom to choose a school for their children, with 40 percent saying they had enough freedom, 47 percent saying more needed to be done and 13 percent unsure.

The margin of error is larger for subgroups in the poll, so in some cases it’s difficult to tell if there’s any meaningful difference of opinion between groups. Many questions broke down along a clear partisan divide, though.

More than eight out of 10 Democrats supported state funding for full-day kindergarten, which passed this session, while fewer than half of Republicans did. Democrats were more likely to have a favorable view of Colorado’s public education system as a whole, while Republicans were more likely to have positive feelings about charter schools.

Overall, however, people who responded to the survey said they had positive views of their local schools, and of public education. About 58 percent said they had a favorable opinion of public education in Colorado, and 59 percent approved of their local schools’ work.

The questions were worded differently, but it wouldn’t be surprising if people’s feelings about their local schools shaped their views of public education as a whole, Winger said.

“I would expect those numbers to be similar unless someone has had either an extremely positive or an extremely negative experience with their local school district that they are able to separate from their opinion on public schools in general,” he said.

The breakdown was different for charter schools, with 43 percent reporting a favorable opinion and 22 percent an unfavorable one. But 35 percent, or more than one person out of three, said they weren’t sure or had no opinion.

Magellan surveyed 731 registered voters, with a mix of party affiliations that reflects the Colorado voting population. It’s the firm’s first in-depth poll on Coloradoans’ opinions on education, which Democrats and unaffiliated voters consistently rank as one of their top issues, Winger said.

“The idea is that this would be the first in a series of annual surveys so that we can track results over time,” he said.

One question, on school safety, could already generate different answers. The survey ended May 1, less than a week before nine students were shot — one fatally — at STEM School Highlands Ranch. At that time, 71 percent of respondents thought schools were “somewhat safe,” and 11 percent thought they were “very safe.”

“It’s the kind of question that can be impacted by recent events, and so I would expect both the ‘very safe’ and ‘somewhat safe’ responses to drop some, though it’s difficult to say how much,” Winger said. “The voter’s proximity to STEM School Highlands Ranch would obviously be a significant factor.”

Other highlights of the poll:

• Three-quarters of those who answered said education was a “very” or “extremely” important issue for them.

• Two-thirds of respondents agreed schools were spending too much time preparing for standardized tests, while one-fifth disagreed.

• About 63 percent of those surveyed agreed public schools were “setting students up for success,” while 26 percent disagreed.

• When asked what they wanted out of a school, parents were more likely than non-parents to list safety and a positive environment. While strong academics was the top choice of both parents and non-parents, those without children chose it by a greater margin.