The newly released PPIC poll shows not only do respondents support education funding, but also some of that education money should be spent on voters.
Delving into the poll reveals the decision-making by the voters on education funding is made on false assumptions.
The poll reveals voters are willing by a two-to-one margin to raise taxes for the purpose of maintaining school funding at current levels. At the same time, by 56% to 40% voters said that they did not think taxes should be part of the budget plan. That seeming dichotomy is not as glaring as first supposed when you look at the questions that prompted the responses.
The question, which rejected taxes as part of the budget plan, was related to the governor’s proposals expressed in his State of the State address. In that speech, the governor said he would not cut education. If voters believe from the speech that education is to be maintained, then those same voters who said they would vote a tax increase to maintain education might not feel the need.
The poll revealed one reason voters might be ready to support a tax increase for K-12 education is that they don’t understand that schools gets such a large piece of the state budget.
Only 16% of the residents polled indentified education as the area that represents the most spending in the state budget. Half said prisons and corrections get the most money although, as PPIC points out, prisons and corrections gets less than schools, health and human services and colleges.
If people think education is shortchanged by the budget then it is not surprising that they tell the pollster they support a tax for education. If the voters knew that education far outstrips the other services funded by the state, the poll results on taxes for schools undoubtedly would not be the same, especially in this difficult economy.
After all, not only did these same citizens weigh in against new taxes to balance the budget, 66% said they pay much more or somewhat more than they should in state and local taxes. And, 69% overwhelmingly supported a strict spending cap.
Of course, there is the age-old warning that voters can easily support a tax increase when talking to a pollster but come to a different conclusion when its time to mark a ballot.
The poll revealed voters still like making decisions at the ballot box, but clearly they are not up to speed on information.
As PPIC President Mark Baldassare stated in a press release accompanying the poll’s release: “If Californians are going to rely on the ballot box for making critical choices about the budget process, the state’s leaders need to do a better job educating the decision makers about where the money comes from and where it goes.”