Posted on 01/23/2006 7:42:34 AM PST by Caleb1411
Education Minnesota, the 70,000-member teachers union, wants to know what you think about our state's public schools. And it's willing to pay a million bucks to find out. Or so it says.
The union has launched a million-dollar, monthlong TV advertising campaign urging you to go to a website, www.schoolsfirst.org. There you can fill out a survey on public education or learn how to attend a public "listening session." Sure, the Minnesota Legislature will be meeting in five weeks, and there's a statewide election this fall. Never mind. Judy Schaubach, the union's president, assures Minnesotans that the campaign has no overtly political purpose.
"Our goal is to provoke a statewide discussion about what people want from our public schools," she told me last week. "For us, it's more about listening than talking."
A TV ad campaign seems a haphazard and costly way to generate reliable public opinion data. I asked Joe Nathan, director of the Humphrey Institute's Center for School Change, how his center gathers such information.
"We use a reputable pollster to conduct unbiased, scientifically valid public opinion surveys," he said. Is the price tag $1 million? "You can conduct a high-quality statewide survey, asking respondents 10 to 15 questions, for about $10,000," he said.
Do you have doubts yet about the real purpose of Education Minnesota's costly ad campaign? Check out the survey at www.schoolsfirst.org, and you'll have more. The questions listed there have a theme. That's right -- it's more funding for public schools. (Example: "Do you believe that state funding for K-12 public schools should be increased?")
The survey also asks for the respondents' opinion on the "biggest challenge facing your local public schools." But most of its potential answers, including "inadequate funding" and "cuts to classes/programs," imply that more money is the solution.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Great grammar on that headline! LOL!
Your elevator doesn’t have to reach the top floor to figure this one out.
Why do people think that a labor union has any concern about the product being produced? I've never understood that. Unions exist to benefit their members-- quality of product is 'management's problem.'
Apart from the missing apostrophe, what is the grammatical error you see? I don't see one.
It's not a real survey. It's advertising. Just like politicians send you surveys in the mail, along with solicitations. They want to boost your ego a bit before asking for bucks. If they ask your opinion on something, then they think you will feel more important. In reality, they don't give a cr@p, as long as you support them.
That was it. And, it just reads awkwardly.
bump
Bump,
Everybody be sure and add your feedback by taking their survey! I may have mentioned "thuggish unions" in mine.
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