JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The vast majority of nearly 700 Duval County residents survey value effective teachers and believe starting pay for teacher should be about $10,000 higher.
That and other findings from the fourth annual Jacksonville Public Education Fund’s public opinion poll were released Friday.
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Those responding, 40 percent of which were parents, named education as the second most important issue facing Jacksonville after crime, and before the economy and transportation.
Parents surveyed rated their children’s school more favorable than the state education system. Most parents who had a child was in a school rated D or F didn't think their child's school was that bad.
They emphasized their appreciation of teachers. Of the parents polled, 86 percent said their children’s teachers are very or somewhat effective. In addition, out of all the respondents, 39 percent said attracting and keeping high quality teachers should be the top priority for Duval’s next superintendent. That priority was ranked No. 1 of the 10 choices provided.
Three-fourths of respondents support some kind of tax increase for public education, up 1 percentage point from last year and 15 percentage points from 2014.
The reputation of good teachers mattered the most to parents when enrolling their children in schools, followed by test scores and safety.
Respondents said the average salary of a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree, currently at $39,500, should increase to $48,173 according to the median calculation. All ages, political parties, races and sides of town agreed a pay raise is needed.
FULL RESULTS: Jacksonville Public Education Fund 2017 survey
JPEF President Try Czar said that could be an issue when trying to recruit those millennials to become teachers. He said this data can hopefully help guide elected officials.
“[It] does impact the decision makers both in the school system and across the state to say ‘these are our voters, these are our community members’ and start to shift policies in reaction to those results,” Czar said.
However, Czar noted more respondents answered “Don’t Know” to more questions than in prior years. For instance, when asked their perception of K-12 education compared to a year ago, 6 percent fewer people picked “Better” compared to last year’s poll and more people picked “Don’t Know” by 5 percentage points.
He calls this trend “civic uncertainty” and said it could be attributed to changes happening in district leadership including a school board election and superintendent search, as well as changes to education at a state level.
More than 90 percent of respondents said they couldn't name their school board representative and 40 percent said they were not aware of Duval’s superintendent search.
“The community has got to be involved in both of those processes in order to make sure that we get the strongest leaders as possible to help run our system,” Czar said.
Czar said he sees these polls as a way to spark conversations.
“I think it’s an opportunity for this community to really re-invest in learning more and helping to set the direction of where we want to go over the coming five or 10 years,” he said.
Nearly 700 residents were polled by cellphone and landline numbers and their demographics were weighted to reflect the city in gender, education and race. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. Thirty percent of respondents were Democrats, 29 percent Republicans and almost a quarter had no party affiliation.
The survey was conducted Nov. 27-Dec. 8 by the Public Opinion Research Laboratory at the University of North Florida.