Poll: Obama Favored on Education Issues

UPDATE: Sherman Dorn offers cautions (here and here) on this poll's methodology.

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A new Gallup/Phi Delta Kappan poll shows that voters overwhelmingly favor Obama over McCain on education issues.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Amy Hetzner provides a nice summary of the campaign-related portions of the poll.

A new poll on the public’s perception of education indicates that more think Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would be better for public schools than think rival John McCain would, even on the traditionally Republican issue of parental choice.

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While President Bush ran neck-and-neck in previous polls with Democratic candidates Al Gore and John Kerry on the question of whom respondents would vote for solely based on a desire to strengthen public schools, Obama was favored 46% to 29% over McCain on the same question this year, according to the poll.

People also found Obama much more likely than McCain to close the achievement gap between white and minority students, by a factor of 59% to 18%.

Obama’s weakest showing was on the issue of promoting parental choice. But even there he beat the poll’s 3 percentage point margin of error, with 43% saying he would be better vs. 32% for McCain.