State: Poll: Education is year's top election issue

At the dawn of a new campaign season, Florida voters are extraordinarily concerned about public schools and sharply divided over Gov. Jeb Bush's education record.

A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald poll shows voters rank education far above all other election-year issues and are surprisingly willing to raise taxes to improve schools. That puts the Republican governor and the antitax Legislature at odds with most people they represent.

Bush has made education his top priority. In his annual State of the State speech in January, he said letter grades for schools and other accountability steps since he took office have brought results that are "nothing short of amazing."

Many voters aren't convinced.

As the popular governor gears up to seek re-election, 51 percent of Florida voters say they are unhappy with his overall education record. In Pinellas, 54 percent of the voters are unhappy with Bush's education record; in Hillsborough, 50 percent disapprove.

But six of 10 Florida voters say they are not ready to vote Bush out of office solely for that reason.

Anxiety over education extends beyond Democrats eager to defeat Bush. Independent voters, often a swing bloc in close statewide races, disapprove of Bush's education record by 58 to 30 percent. Two of every three Republican voters say they would pay higher taxes to hire teachers and build classrooms.

"It's kind of disheartening to see what's going on," said Democrat Jim Zellman, a 75-year-old retired college English teacher from Fort Myers. "They need to build 11 new schools down here, and they don't have the money. And the class sizes, some of them are up to 38. That's just too much."

"There is not enough put up for education in any way, shape or form," said Susie Freehauf of Hobe Sound, a mother of three and an independent voter. "These teachers. It's so frustrating. These people have put so much into these kids, and they're getting nothing back."

The poll of Florida voters was conducted March 22-28 for the St. Petersburg Times and the Miami Herald, the state's two largest newspapers, by Schroth & Associates, a Washington polling firm. The telephone survey of 800 registered voters has a margin of error rate of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The poll also finds:

By a margin of 56 to 26 percent, most voters think the country is headed in the right direction more than six months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But they are evenly split (44 to 43 percent) on whether Florida is moving in the right direction.

The outlook is more optimistic in Hillsborough, where 58 percent think the state is headed in the right direction, and in Pinellas (46 percent).

Fifty-five percent of voters oppose a state law that bars gays from adopting children. So do more than half the voters in Hillsborough and Pinellas.

The poll was taken soon after entertainer Rosie O'Donnell bought ads in major newspapers urging legislators to repeal the 1977 law. Florida is the only state that does not allow single gay residents or gay couples to adopt.

While Republicans in Tallahassee brag about tax cuts, more than four in 10 voters think taxes have been cut too much since Bush took office in 1999. More than three in 10 say three years of tax cuts totaling $4-billion strikes a proper balance between meeting the state's needs and reducing the tax burden. Less than two in 10 favor more tax cuts, and one in 10 had no opinion.

There is slightly more support for Bush's tax cuts in Hillsborough and Pinellas, with four in 10 voters in each county finding the tax cuts to be about right.

Nearly half of all voters disapprove of the Legislature's performance, and nearly two-thirds think the Legislature has strayed from the original intent of the "sunshine" laws by making too many public records offlimits to citizens. The Legislature's disapproval rating is 43 percent in Hillsborough and 51 percent in Pinellas.

Overall, the Times/Herald poll portrays Florida voters as more moderate on tax policy and social issues than the Republicans who control state government.

"Any time an electorate is strongly willing to tax themselves and to allow gays to adopt children, you simply cannot reasonably conclude that the state is trending more conservative," pollster Rob Schroth said.

The poll shows education matters far more to Floridians than any other issue Improving public education and public schools was ranked the state's most important issue by 43 percent of voters. No other issue scored in double digits.

While voters place remarkable emphasis on improving education, they are unsure how to do it.

Most voters oppose Bush's two most ambitious reform efforts.

Slightly more than half (53 percent) oppose the governor's A-plus plan that offers vouchers, paid for by taxpayers, to cover tuition for private or religious schools for children in failing public schools. Only two elementary schools, both in Pensacola, currently qualify for vouchers.

The public's sense of urgency to improve schools, even if it means higher taxes, has not been embraced by Democrats eager to make inroads against the Republicans who now control the executive and legislative branches.

Many Democratic legislators distanced themselves from Republican Senate President John McKay's call for a broad overhaul of the tax system, including reducing the sales tax rate and the elimination of nearly 100 sales tax exemptions.

Yet 48 percent of voters favored the McKay plan and 45 percent opposed it, a statistical tie. McKay's tax reform plan failed amid strong opposition by Bush, the House and business lobbyists. It has been replaced by a more modest proposal for a voter-approved legislative committee with the power to repeal tax exemptions on a case-by-case basis.

The Times/Herald survey contains several other revealing glimpses into the attitudes of Florida voters.

The 2000 presidential election uproar that Democrats hoped would galvanize support for them this year has become a fading memory. Fewer than one-fourth of voters said they could not support Jeb Bush's re-election bid because of his role in the election furor. Nearly eight of 10 voters said they have more confidence that future elections will be handled more smoothly because of new laws and voting machines.

There also is more disquieting news for Democrats.

Voters still view Republicans as the party that does a better job of cutting taxes, fighting crime and encouraging high moral values. And Democrats are seen as the party looking out for the middle class, improving public education and protecting the environment.

But the Democrats' historical advantage as the party that best sets education policy has slipped. Just 44 percent agree with that assessment; 38 percent say they trust the GOP more on education.

"I think every politician in the state of Florida that's not clearly on the side of measures to improve public education could pay a price at the ballot box," Schroth said. "Voters are very clear about what they want, and you ignore them at your own political peril."

- Times staff writer Wes Allison contributed to this report.

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