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55% Say Government Doesn’t Spend Enough on Public Education
Rasmussen Reports ^ | March 8, 2010

Posted on 03/08/2010 8:08:29 AM PST by reaganaut1

While government leaders attempt to tackle budget deficits that are ballooning to historic proportions, 55% of Americans say the government does not spend enough money on public education.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 20% think the government spends too much on public education, while another 21% say the amount it spends is about right.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Democrats and 55% of voters not affiliated with either party say the government does not spend enough, a view shared by just 42% of Republicans.

Among all voters, 45% believe it is more important for the government to aid low-income students than to help the best and brightest pupils, up four points from a survey last May. Twenty-six percent (26%) see helping the best and brightest students as more important. Twenty-nine percent (29%) more are not sure.

Most Democrats (63%) and a plurality (46%) of unaffiliated voters see aiding low-income students as the priority. Republicans are more narrowly divided: 41% say helping the best and brightest is more important, while 26% think the emphasis should be on low-income students.

Married voters are closely divided on the question, too.

Seventy-five percent (75%) of all voters say they have been following recent news reports about proposed cuts in public education funding due to state budget problems.

Last August, only 17% of Americans believed teachers should be asked to take furloughs or pay cuts to help deal with the budget crises that are facing many school systems nationwide.

President Obama has said U.S. children need to spend more time in school to make them more competitive with students from other countries, and 49% of Americans think the president is right. Thirty-seven percent (37%) disagree.

(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: 2010polls; arth; broke; education; educationfunding; publicschools; schools; spending; union
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To: Non-Sequitur

This is similar to polls that you see on incumbants.

Generally, Congressional approval ratings are always low. But if you ask a person how they feel about their specific congresscritter, the answer is positive.

Basically, we have a system where all spending is bad - except spending that I like. And all elected representatives are awful - except mine.


101 posted on 03/08/2010 12:19:30 PM PST by MrRobertPlant2009
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To: Non-Sequitur

All public education: funding by federal, state, and local governments. And all levels: pre-K through college.


102 posted on 03/08/2010 12:28:51 PM PST by ConjunctionJunction (LOLcat sez: "ObamaCare: Do Not Want!")
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To: Westbrook

Yes.


103 posted on 03/08/2010 12:41:51 PM PST by gogeo ("Every one has a right to be an idiot. He abuses the privilege!" Groucho Marx)
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To: N3WBI3
The only way to ‘fix’ public schools is for parents to be more involved in their kids education...

I believe public education can't be fixed.

104 posted on 03/08/2010 12:48:08 PM PST by gogeo ("Every one has a right to be an idiot. He abuses the privilege!" Groucho Marx)
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To: N3WBI3

The only way to ‘fix’ public schools is for parents to be more involved in their kids education.


Interesting concept.

Here’s what happens when you attempt to get involved. Flash back ‘99:

I went through a background check - no probs. Children would arrive before school and sit in the hallways (No Talking!), no library, no playground - nothing. Some buses arrived over an hour early.

So, I went to the Principal and volunteered to shelve every book that any child removed from the shelf before school while in the library. Nope. “Union Workers only” who did not want “non union volunteers”. Then after the first 6 weeks, no child was allowed to check out a book. No one wanted to re-shelve them??! So again I volunteered - same response.

At a PTO meeting, I was the only parent who showed up. “Our property - Our Rules.” Against me? President of the Parents part, President of the Teacher part and Union Boss.

We began HSing the next year.

Parents are not wanted in the majority of the schools except for Parent/Teacher conferences.

They might just find out what really goes on there.


105 posted on 03/08/2010 12:51:36 PM PST by NoNAIS (Yet another Government program not needed.)
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To: ConjunctionJunction
All public education: funding by federal, state, and local governments. And all levels: pre-K through college.

How about just primary and secondary? Start talking universities and you get into public vs. private, research vs. subsidies, etc., etc.

In 2006 they received $521 billion in state, federal, and local funding out of a GDP of $13,202 billion. That comes to 3.9%.

106 posted on 03/08/2010 12:51:41 PM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: nj patriot
If money could fix the problem, it would be fixed already...

I believe there is a cause and effect relationship between money and achievement (above a minimum amount of money, certainly lower than now.) As money increases, achievement will decrease.

107 posted on 03/08/2010 12:53:16 PM PST by gogeo ("Every one has a right to be an idiot. He abuses the privilege!" Groucho Marx)
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To: NoNAIS

How many special needs students?

What kills public schools is the demands placed on them by special needs students and all state and federal hoops you have to jump through for them.

Busing, accessibility, extra aides, psyschologists, etc. That stuff adds up.

Find out where your local school district teaches its TMI students. Go to that classroom. Count the number of teachers and the amount of equipment in that room. Then divide that number by the number of students. Tell me what you get.


108 posted on 03/08/2010 1:09:40 PM PST by MrRobertPlant2009
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To: reaganaut1

They don’t spend enough on education. They do,however, spend plenty on useless, extraneous crap like gay issues, Marxist doctrine, “even stupid kids are smart” programs, and the like.


109 posted on 03/08/2010 1:34:14 PM PST by ronnyquest (That's what governments are for: to get in a man's way.)
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To: reaganaut1

The problem is not money, the problem is that the schools don’t teach. Just this morning I had a conversation with a student who is in the tenth grade, I asked him a few questions about history and government, he couldn’t answer a single one. The questions all concerned things that I was required to learn in the first seven years of school.


110 posted on 03/08/2010 3:37:14 PM PST by RipSawyer (Trying to reason with a leftist is like trying to catch sunshine in a fish net at midnight.)
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To: reaganaut1

LMAO. Okay, lets tax ONLY those idiots who said we need to spend more.


111 posted on 03/08/2010 4:55:20 PM PST by Paul Ross (Ronald Reagan-1987:"We are always willing to be trade partners but never trade patsies.")
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To: BenKenobi

It’s always seemed worse in education. Although, it doesn’t bother me that much because good teachers are definitely more valuable than any administrator. However, a new principal who lacks discipline can turn a decent school to absolute crap in a fairly short amount of time.


112 posted on 03/08/2010 8:57:45 PM PST by conservativebuckeye
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To: conservativebuckeye
The dirty little secret about principals and superintendents is that many of them were below average teachers.

Reminds me of the old adage, "Those that can, do, those that cannot, teach, and those which cannot do either, administrate..."

the infowarrior

113 posted on 03/09/2010 1:34:42 AM PST by infowarrior
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To: conservativebuckeye

That’s also true, but any admin worth his salt would be pulling his weight.


114 posted on 03/09/2010 4:13:48 PM PST by BenKenobi (And into this Ring he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life.)
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To: reaganaut1

115 posted on 03/09/2010 4:15:31 PM PST by Godzilla (3-7-77)
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