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January 28, 2009

NYers more positive about mayoral control than about mayor

by Philissa Cramer, at 9:33 am

picture-22A majority of New Yorkers think mayoral control should continue after the June 30 deadline for state legislators to decide the fate of the 7-year-old school governance structure.

A new poll out of Quinnipiac University found that 56 percent of New Yorkers think mayoral control should continue. The poll also found that 34 percent of New Yorkers want to see mayoral control of the city’s schools end this summer.

At least some of the people polled are doing what’s advised by Learn NY, the group lobbying in favor of mayoral control, and separating their views on the current public schools administration from their opinion of mayoral control. The same poll found that only 47 percent of New Yorkers consider Mayor Bloomberg’s takeover of the schools a success.

One other interesting data point: Only 50 percent of women want to maintain mayoral control, while 63 percent of men do.

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  • Jonathan

    I wonder what accounts for the male/female divide on mayoral control. Is it the fact that they mayor in question is male? Do men for some reason tend to like a more centralized authority? Perhaps among the female responders there were more teachers who have direct experience with mayoral control. Might be interesting to interview someon from Quinnipiac to see if they have some qualitative data too.

  • Richard K

    How odd that the question would be as simple as continue control or end it and go back to the previous structure. What happens when you ask whether there should be checks and balances or whether there should be a fully functioning school board? There are any number of reasonable and well through through plans on how to improve upon the present version of mayoral control.

  • http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com Patrick J. Sullivan

    We hear constantly from Mike Bloomberg and Joel Klein that mayoral control is the cornerstone of their broader civil rights agenda. The fact that so many people, especially the 41% of blacks and 39% of Hispanics would end mayoral control is a stunning condemnation of the Bloomberg administration’s stewardship of the schools. Perhaps for many, the idea that two guys make every single decision and systematically exclude the voice of parents in the essential decisions on how their children are educated is not really consistent with a civil rights agenda.

  • Matthew

    You buried the lead Phillissa.

    The good news is that satisfaction levels with the quality of public schools is at an all-time high. 32%! That subway ad campaign is really working.

    TREND: Are you generally satisfied with the quality of the public schools in New York City, or are you not satisfied? (*also 12% on 2/5/04, 3/27/02, 4/20/00 & 3/31/97)

    SATISFIED….
    High Low
    Jan 28 Jul 16 Nov 21 Jul 26 Mar 15 Jan 28 Feb 5
    2009 2008 2007 2007 2007 2009 2004*

    Satisfied 32 29 27 25 19 32 12
    Not satisfied 55 59 55 63 64 55 74
    DK/NA 14 12 18 12 16 14 13

    In his defense, half of the respondents with kids in public schools are satisfied. On the other hand, half aren’t.

  • http://sinksalive.blogspot.com KitchenSink

    Sounds like a mixed set of data to me. Arguments can be made on all sides reading into these statistics.

    How about the fact that, whether you love him or hate him, we’ve had a single one chancellor for the past, what is it, six years? At least there’s one punching bag up there. I know I had whiplash for many years when the shelf life of a chancellor was 2 years or less.

  • Ellen McHugh

    “The same poll found that only 47 percent of New Yorkers consider Mayor Bloomberg’s takeover of the schools a success.” and that “56 percent of New Yorkers think mayoral control should continue”
    If the results of the poll are this erratic maybe there should be another poll? or better questions?
    As far as disliking the current administration: is this a popularity poll?

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