NSBA poll: Congress out of touch with public expectations

The poll, carried out by Fabrizio, McLaughlin and Associates, surveyed by phone 1,200 citizens in May who said they plan to vote in the next general election.

Seventy percent of those polled said they want Congress to fulfill its commitment to schoolchildren by fully funding Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Even Republicans support restoring funding by more than a 2-to-1 margin.

Respondents also said they plan to consider congressional members’ voting records on education funding when they go to the polls in November.

The poll indicates that voters are dissatisfied with Washington politicians. Fifty-seven percent disapprove of President Bush’s job performance, 58 percent disapprove of the performance of Republican members of Congress, and 54 percent are not happy with congressional Democrats.

Nearly three of four likely voters think Congress is not doing a good job setting spending priorities, and nearly 88 percent think that if Congress can spend billions of dollars on wasteful pork-barrel projects, it can afford to fulfill its promises on funding federal education programs.

“This poll clearly shows that the American public is fed up with Congress’s inability to deliver on its continued promises of federal education funding,” says NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant. 

“In fact, nearly 85 percent of voters in this poll believe that Congress is cheating our children and is jeopardizing our country’s economic future if it leaves education programs unfunded or underfunded,” Bryant says. “If that’s not a mandate from the public, then I don’t know what is.”

There is a significant disconnect between the current federal investment in education funding and what voters think is spent and the amount of the budget they think should be spent on education. On average, voters believe that 20 percent of the federal budget is currently spent on K-12 education but think that 37 percent of the budget should go for education. Even Republican voters want 33 percent of the federal budget spent on education.

The public’s perception, however, is a far cry from the 1.5 percent of the federal budget that is actually spent on K-12 education. 

Pollsters told survey respondents that Congress authorized “$42 billion next year to fund two of the largest federal education programs that aid public schools across the country -- the No Child Left Behind Act and special education. However, in the current budget proposal, Congress is providing only $23 billion for these two programs  -- a little more than half of the $42 billion they originally authorized and promised.”

When asked their opinion about that situation, 70 percent of respondents said Congress should “restore the funding for these education programs back to their authorized and promised levels for next year.”

“Congress better wake up and smell the bacon, because the public already has,” says NSBA President E. Jane Gallucci. “Clearly, voters support Congress shifting money from pork-barrel projects to fund the education programs it has imposed on local schools.”

The NSBA poll indicates there could be a significant political price for not restoring the promised education funding. Overall, 59 percent of voters say they would be less likely to vote for a member of Congress who voted against restoring funding.

Sixty-one percent of voters would be more likely to vote for a member of Congress who voted to restore funding to the authorized and promised levels. This sentiment cuts across party lines, as a majority of Dem­ocrats, Republicans, and Independents were in agreement.

Pollsters asked respondents whether they agree or disagree with this statement: “If Congress can vote to spend $29 billion dollars on pork-barrel projects like building a teapot museum, they can certainly afford to live up to their commitments and fund the education programs they impose on local schools.” Nearly 90 percent of respondents (87.8 percent) said they agreed.

“With high disapproval ratings across the board, Congress can avoid picking a fight with voters by simply fulfilling its education funding commitments, which would mean reallocating less than 1 percent of the overall federal budget,” says NSBA Associate Executive Director Michael A. Resnick.

“Neither party, especially the GOP, can afford to be seen as backing away from their promised funding to education programs, given the sour mood of the electorate and the overwhelming support for restoring funding levels on key education programs,” says GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio.