To: Pre-K For PA
From: Lake Research Partners, Bellwether Research & Consulting
Re: Poll Findings from late August survey
Date: September 19, 2014
Likely 2014 voters strongly support access to pre-K programs for every 3 and 4 year old in Pennsylvania. A 68 percent majority favor every 3 and 4 year old in Pennsylvania having access to voluntary, high quality pre-K programs, including 55 percent who strongly favor compared to 13 percent who oppose and 19 percent who are unsure.
Support for providing access to pre-K programs for every 3 and 4 year old exists across party lines as 81 percent of self-identified Democrats, 74 percent of self-identified independents, and 51 percent of self-identified Republicans favor increasing funding.
Strong support exists for increasing funding to ensure all Pennsylvania children have access to voluntary, high quality pre-K programs. Sixty-four (64) percent of voters favor increasing funding, including 48 percent who strongly favor, while 21 percent oppose and 15 percent are unsure.
Education remains a core value for Pennsylvania voters. Voters identify increasing jobs and the economy as a top priority for elected officials to address (78 percent say it is a top priority), followed by improving K-12 education (60 percent say it is a top priority). When considered separately from K-12 education, forty-two (42) percent say improving pre-K is a top priority.
Seniors strongly support pre-K education. Sixty (60) percent of voters over 65 favor ensuring every 3 and 4 year old in Pennsylvania has access to voluntary, high quality pre-K programs, including 51 percent who strongly favor. A 55 percent majority favor increasing state funding, including 38 who strongly favor, while just 26 percent oppose.
Voters are more likely to say Pennsylvania spends too little on pre-K education programs. A 40 percent plurality of voters says Pennsylvania spends too little, compared to just 9 percent who say Pennsylvania spends too much. Twenty-seven (27) percent say Pennsylvania spends about the right amount, and 24 percent are not sure.
Nearly half of voters favor increasing state funding even if it increases their taxes. 48 percent of voters favor increasing funding even if it increases their taxes, while 39 percent oppose and 14 percent are not sure.
Voters who are undecided on the race for Governor strongly support pre-K programs. Pre-K education is a higher priority for undecided voters (46 percent say top priority) than for voters overall (42 percent say top priority). Among those who are undecided:
- 59 percent favor ensuring access to pre-K programs for all 3 and 4 year olds.
- 55 percent favor increasing funding for pre-K programs for all 3 and 4 year olds.
- A 44 percent plurality favor increasing funding even if it would increase their taxes.
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Lake Research Partners and Bellwether Research and Consulting designed and administered this survey that was conducted by telephone using professional interviewers between August 13 – 17, 2014. The survey reached a total of 400 Pennsylvania 2014 General Election Registered Likely Voters with oversamples of 100 Registered Likely Voters ages 50-64, 100 Registered Likely Voters over age 65, and 132 Registered Likely Voters in Pittsburgh, Northeast, Northwest, and the Philadelphia suburbs. Telephone numbers for the survey were drawn using a voter file sample. The data was weighted slightly by gender, education, race, party registration, and region to reflect the attributes of the actual population. The oversamples were weighted into the base. The margin of error for the total sample is +/-3.7%.
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