Today The Dallas News produced a poll of 1482 registered voters informing us that 52% of all Texans favor additional spending on education versus 39% who oppose it. The only group out of step with more spending was “Republicans” who opposed additional spending by 46% to 44% margin; pretty much a tie. Beyond that the News story was a bit skimpy with details.

Another poll released yesterday was longer on detail. While this poll was paid for by the less than unbiased Texas State Teacher Association (the Texas arm of the National Education Association) it was conducted by the respected Tarrance Group. The poll of 893 registered voters found to no one’s surprise that 42% of all Texans named “education” as the state’s most important issue. That was up 4% over last year. Only 16% named “cutting property taxes” as the state’s top priority.

The most interesting result was that 69% wanted to see more state money invested in education. When read the statement “our children deserve better, and we can give them an excellent education by fully funding the proven reform already in place, and investing more money in public education” 64% said “yes.” This question was counter posed with “we can provide our children with a good, adequate education by using our current education dollars, so we should not invest more money in public education” which drew a 29% positive response.

When similar statements were counter posed the poll found that 58% wanted a pay raise given to all teachers while 39% preferred that raises be tied to student performance tests. While 70% of Texas voters want higher education standards it appears that “testing” as a measure of achievement is losing favor with 56% saying there is too much emphasis on testing.

Obviously the TSTA was not going to release a poll whose conclusions were counter to its interests. However, that doesn’t mean the poll is biased. To the extent the Dallas News offered much information on its poll results they seem in good agreement with the TSTA.

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