Public Priorities for the Future of Ohio Education
Education matters.
That not only is the guiding mission for KnowledgeWorks Foundation, but it is the resounding message from Ohioans in 2006. Education matters to Ohioans strongly enough that they once again placed it as their top priority for state spending, with 80 percent saying they want more of their tax dollars to go toward improving education.
As Ohio embarks on a period of new state leadership, the Ohio’s Education Matters Poll 2006 provides insight into Ohioans' opinions and concerns for their state. It allows decision-makers to better understand Ohioans’ perspectives and priorities as a new administration shapes its agenda.
In a time where education, political, business, and community leaders are making bold calls to transform the public education system – with a variety of new methods and directions – we stop to take the public’s temperature. While Ohioans support much of the state’s direction, the public is equally as cautious of several proposals in the state and national discussion of public education’s future.
This year’s poll focuses on where the public stands on accountability, assessment and standards; school finance; preparedness and transition; and innovation and options – all parts of ongoing state and national reforms or proposals to transform education in this century. It probes Ohioans’ positions on how such reforms will shape public education and where they are hesitant about proposed change.
