Poll Finds Voters ‘Dead-Set’ Against Education Agenda in Florida

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Neither Gov. Rick Scott nor his education agenda are popular with voters in a new Quinnipiac poll.

Florida voters don’t like education proposals pushed by state leaders and Gov. Rick Scott.

Really don’t like them, according to a new Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll.

Quinnipiac pollsters say voters are “dead-set” against a series of school reform efforts by state leaders.

The worst offender is a plan to set different achievement goals for students based on their race. 71 percent of respondents think it’s a bad idea, with just 7 percent saying they like it.

Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown said, “Voters, with little difference along political, racial or gender lines, find setting different goals for different races to be distasteful.”

• 62 percent of respondents don’t agree with charging lower tuition rates for freshmen and sophomores than for upperclassmen.

• 66 percent are “skeptical” of Scott’s $10,000 degree challenge. Scott has asked colleges to create affordable, four-year degree programs in high-demand areas like education, information technology, and engineering. But only 29 percent of voters think colleges will actually do it.

• 66 percent of voters are against charging cheaper tuition to students who major in STEM-related fields like math, science, engineering and computers. On the flip side, students who major in “less employable” programs like liberal arts would pay higher tuition.

• Finally, voters oppose – by 73 to 16 percent – the idea of allowing “preeminent” public universities to charge higher tuition than other state universities. These are top research universities that would be able to increase tuition to the “market rate” instead of being confined to a 15 percent cap.

The poll was conducted between from December 11 – 17.  1,261 registered voters were surveyed over the phone. The margin of error is +/- 2.8 percentage points.

It caps a rough week for Scott.

More than half of those polled, 52 percent, don’t think Scott deserves another four years.

The Facebook page “Stop Rick Scott’s Private Voucher Scheme” has almost 1400 likes.

Florida Education Association President Andy Ford said Scott and the Board of Governors “ignored the parents and teachers of our state” with the appointment of Tony Bennett as Florida’s Commissioner of Education.