New Battleground State Poll Shows Dems Lose Historic Lead on Education
New investments, public school choices offer path to reconnecting with voters

NEW YORK, N.Y. (July 28, 2023) – A new EdTrends poll of voters in four battleground states released today by Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) shows Democrats ceded trust on education to Republicans as voters note concerns over lingering pandemic learning loss.

Democrats, who once held a double-digit lead on trust in education, are now trailing Republicans (-3 percentage-points) among all voters in four battleground states—Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina on this issue. However, Democrats are still outperforming their Republican counterparts when it comes to trust on other hallmark issues where Democrats have historically maintained strong advantages.

Comparatively:

• Democrats led Republicans on ensuring women have access to quality healthcare (+21 percentage-points, a -24-point gap compared to public education).
• Democrats led Republicans on dealing with climate change (+13 percentage-points, a -16-point gap compared to public education).
• Democrats led Republicans on reducing gun violence (+7 percentage-points a -10-point gap compared to public education).

The survey found nearly six out of 10 parents did not see improvements in their schools, despite historic levels of pandemic relief investments over the past three years. However, voters who reported seeing some improvement in the past year said they trusted Democrats on education over Republicans by a 12-percentage point margin (46% to 34%). These improvements included high-impact tutoring, after school and summer learning programs, and better school facilities.

Encouragingly for Democrats, the survey showed strong favorability among all voters, including Democrats and Independent voters for public school choice, including public charter schools (64% and 66%), public magnet schools (62% and 60%), and career academies (70% and 67%). Despite Republican choice programs in these states, voters still prefer the Democratic vision of public-school choice by 35-percentage points (68-32%).

“The crisis in education has mounted into one voters simply cannot ignore,” said DFER CEO Jorge Elorza. “Voters—especially parents—want to see more choices for their children. Republicans are capitalizing on this. Embracing public school choice isn’t just the right thing today, but it will help Democrats reconnect with frustrated voters and families who know that more of the same won’t fix our public education system.”

The representative poll was conducted by Emerson College Polling between July 17-19, 2023, among voters in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada. Data was collected by contacting cell phones via SMS-to-web, email via a consumer list of emails, and an online panel. The sample size is n=1,200 with a credibility interval of +/- 3%. 

You can view the poll results here. Additional crosstabs available upon request. 

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About Democrats for Education Reform Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) is a national political organization that supports elected Democrats and candidates for office who seek to expand policies and practices that increase educational equity for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. It is a partner organization of Education Reform Now Advocacy, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that supports DFER’s legislative and policy advocacy work. www.dfer.org.

New York, NY (July 19, 2023) – Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) released the following statement today in response to the draft fiscal year 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies funding bill recently introduced by House Appropriations Committee Republicans:

“The Republicans’ first attack on public education this year came in March through a bill designed to stoke culture wars and ban books. This budget would decimate funding for flagship education programs and put millions of students at serious risk, further revealing Republicans’ true level of commitment to supporting our students.

We are absolutely shocked to see that the bill would cut Title I funding by 80%—almost $15 billion—which would severely affect the ability to implement programs in 7 out of every 10 of our nation’s school districts. Instead of the $2 billion we had hoped to see, Republicans are proposing to outright eliminate Title III funding—the main source of federal support for English language learners.

Furthering the flagrant disregard for students’ well-being, we are alarmed to see that the bill would cut funding for research and development by $101 million, crippling much needed efforts to address COVID-related learning loss through evidence-based interventions.

On the higher education side, the bill looks equally awful. Funding for the Augustus Hawkins program—an integral lever in the support of HBCUs and other MSIs —is eliminated outright, causing profound damage to teacher training and the diversification of the teaching force.

We are deeply concerned to see that the bill would underfund Federal Student Aid, just as loan repayments are starting up again, putting countless numbers of students at risk of serious financial harm. Additionally distressing, the bill also seeks to eliminate Federal Work-Study and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants—crucial programs that make college more affordable for more than 2 million students. Continuing, it would fail to increase Pell Grants, pushing even more of the burden of paying for college onto hard-working, low-income students.

While any single item proposed within the bill is just cause for alarm, taken as a whole, the House Republicans’ drafted plan seems an outright attack on education and programs designed to protect and support the very students who need it most. We condemn this thoughtless piece of legislation and ask that voters hold accountable the policymakers supporting this devastating bill—one that was no less proposed at a time when we should be doing more to support public education, not drastically less.”

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