New Yorkers Trust Teachers More Than Michael Bloomberg: Study
New Yorkers are hot for teachers: A new Quinnipiac University poll has found that the city's residents think that profs are more likely to protect the interest of public school kids than Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Fifty-six percent of voters trust the teachers union to help children learn, while only 31 percent have faith in the mayor. They tend to be supportive of Bloomberg's educational policies -- though they don't really like him, according to Quinnipiac (via City and State.) (With parents, 69 percent trust the teachers union; only 22 percent confide in the mayor.)
Seventy-one percent like the idea of merit pay, 54 percent think that firing public school teachers should be easier, and 81 percent said that layoffs should be performance based.
Meanwhile, 84 percent like the idea of attracting good educators by paying off profs' student loans, and 54 percent like the idea of performance-based raises.
"They endorse the overall idea of merit pay for good teachers and making it easier to lay off bad ones. And they'd resurrect Bloomberg's plan, which went nowhere last year, to make merit -- not longevity -- the test when teachers have to be laid off," says Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
"Voters like the message; they just don't like the messenger."
Bloomberg's so-so job approval rating goes along with this: 46 percent like Mike's work, compared to 49 percent in December.
Follow Victoria Bekiempis @vicbekiempis.
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