Poll: N.J. voters say not enough state money spent on education

Ninety-nine percent of New Jersey voters believe the state's budget problems are very serious or somewhat serious, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. But recession-weary voters say the state should spend more on education.

In a Rutgers-Eagleton Poll released this week, 59 percent of registered voters who responded said not enough was being spent on education, while 15 percent said too much was being spent.

"The spending results are consistent with our earlier polling," said David Redlawsk, director of the poll. "New Jerseyans generally support their schools and want to see them better funded, even while they want the state to cut back on funding in other areas."

That support for education is not unconditional, however. In the Rutgers poll, 90 percent said teachers should be tested for reading and math proficiency, and 70 percent said tenure was a "barrier to eliminating bad teachers." Still, 63 percent said they opposed basing a teacher's salary on test scores.

Twenty-six percent of the parents of school-age children among the respondents said budgets were the biggest problems in education, while 8 percent called the New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, the biggest problem in education.

So if not education, where should the state find the money to balance the budget?

In the Quinnipiac poll, 62 percent said they would rather cut services than raise taxes. A majority - 54 percent - favored layoffs of state workers. Even more said they liked the idea of furloughs or a wage freeze.

Gov. Christie called for reducing the state payroll by 1,300 workers in his budget. With attrition, state officials have said layoffs might not be necessary.

The Rutgers poll results are from a random sample of 885 registered voters interviewed Oct. 21-27; the margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

In the Quinnipiac poll, 29 percent said state aid to local government and school districts should be increased, while 52 percent said it should remain the same.

A majority - 56 percent - said they had a favorable opinion of public school teachers, and 51 percent said public school teacher salaries were "about right." Twenty-three percent said public school teachers made too much, and 18 percent said not enough.

Voters supported merit pay for teachers, 67 percent to 29 percent, and 65 percent said firing bad teachers should be easier.

"It looks a lot like one of those classic hit-the-other-guy judgments," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "We want to cut services to balance the budget, but we don't want to cut aid to local government and schools."

The Quinnipiac Poll surveyed 1,362 New Jersey voters Nov. 3 to Monday, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.