Surveys of Public Opinion
The reforms imposed upon NOPS in the wake of Katrina proved to be extremely popular with the public, despite the policy's criticism from observers such as Klein. A recent survey conducted by Tulane University's Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives indicated that the state's takeover of NOPS and the subsequent spread of independent public charters are viewed with overwhelming approval, by both parents of students and by citizens in general. Specifically, a poll of 347 randomly selected Orleans Parish voters and 300 randomly selected parents of children in the NOPS system indicated that 85% of parents surveyed reported they were able to enroll their children at the school they preferred, and 84% said the enrollment process was easy - findings that surprised the researchers. Furthermore, 82% of parents with children enrolled at public charter schools gave their children's schools an "A" or "B", though only 48% of parents of children enrolled in non-chartered public schools assigned A's or B's to the schools their children attended. According to the survey, clear majorities of parents and voters overall do not want the Orleans Parish School Board to regain administrative control of NOPS. However, the Times-Picayune's story failed to inform readers that the Cowen Institute is itself an advocate of charter schools, and is listed as a "Key Partner" of New Schools for New Orleans, a charter school advocacy group. Because of this conflict of interest and because of allegations of bias in the wording of the Cowen Institute's questions, its survey may possess questionable validity.
Read more about this topic: New Orleans Public Schools
Famous quotes containing the words surveys of, surveys, public and/or opinion:
“The three main medieval points of view regarding universals are designated by historians as realism, conceptualism, and nominalism. Essentially these same three doctrines reappear in twentieth-century surveys of the philosophy of mathematics under the new names logicism, intuitionism, and formalism.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The most evident difference between man and animals is this: the beast, in as much as it is largely motivated by the senses and with little perception of the past or future, lives only for the present. But man, because he is endowed with reason by which he is able to perceive relationships, sees the causes of things, understands the reciprocal nature of cause and effect, makes analogies, easily surveys the whole course of his life, and makes the necessary preparations for its conduct.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“The principal saloon was the Howlin’ Wilderness, an immense log cabin with a log fire always burning in the huge fireplace, where so many fights broke out that the common saying was, “We will have a man for breakfast tomorrow.””
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“It is cruel for you to leave your daughter, so full of hope and resolve, to suffer the humiliations of disfranchisement she already feels so keenly, and which she will find more and more galling as she grows into the stronger and grander woman she is sure to be. If it were your son who for any cause was denied his right to have his opinion counted, you would compass sea and land to lift the ban from him.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)