In the final total, more than 61% of the local school levies passed Tuesday, and nearly 39% of the local school levies failed, which was a new record high of support for the past five years but not as good as a decade ago. More on election results. In a statewide phone survey, we asked Ohio registered voters last month how they voted on local school levies and then asked them what they thought about a number of other education issues. More on poll.
The answers they have were interesting. I was particularly interested in the attitudes and positions of those who say they always or usually vote against local school levies and bond issues in their communities. Only 14% of the respondents said they voted against local school issues, and they tended to be older voters living in urban areas and earning middle-income wages. If they had kids in schools, they were more likely to be in private school than public school.
Here is what they thought about a variety of education issues:
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Compared to those who always or usually vote for local school issues and those who vote for some local issues, this group of levy opponents tended to be more pessimistic about the direction of the state of Ohio, more pessimistic about the direction of Ohio public education, and more critical of the quality of education in the state and in their communities. For instance, only 32% rated the quality of public education in Ohio as excellent or good, compared to 41% of the levy supporters who gave those ratings. When asked to rate the quality of the schools in their community, only 46% rated them excellent or good compared to nearly 72% of levy supporters.
- The levy opponents were also more likely to agree that the system of public education makes school districts generally inefficient structures for using and managing tax dollars. Fifty-seven percent agreed that school districts were generally inefficient, compared to 44% of levy supporters.
- This group is more likely than others to want voters to primarily be making decisions about how much of the annual state budget is allocated for public education and schools. More than 51% expressed this opinion, compared to less than 30% of those who are levy supporters and 44% who vote for some levies.
- They are less likely to support more state spending on education, less likely to think that the state is spending too little on education, and less likely to support any change in the mix of tax resources to fund schools. For instance, 76% oppose the creation of a statewide property tax for education to increase amount of money for schools and reduce the amount of local levy elections. That is compared to 44% of levy supporters who oppose such a change.
Without more in-depth research, it is hard to know fully what the levy opponents think about the issues, and voters can oppose local issues for many reasons that are unique to their communities and the particular issues. But this preliminary data suggests to me that hard-core levy opponents just don't think their schools and public education in general are doing a very good job and they don't need more money to do better.
That may seem self-evident (the no-brainer, you might say) but this might serve as a good reminder that getting the support of these hard-core opponents lies in convincing them that public education is or will be getting the results that earn their support in the future.
Or, more importantly, earn their tax dollars.