A poll commissioned by Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy drew scrutiny about leading questions, polled a sampling of voters that underrepresented younger Alaskans and public school parents, and reported key findings in a confusing and misleading way.
The poll was conducted by Dittman and surveyed 810 registered voters. The survey data showed that 65% of respondents believe that Alaska is headed on the wrong track and 77% of respondents support an increase to per student funding, or base student allocation (BSA). Fifty-seven percent said reform to the education system is most important to improving education outcomes and 33% said increasing education funding is the most important factor.
Matt Larkin, owner of Dittman Research, fielded questions about the leading nature of some of the questions during a press conference held by Governor Mike Dunleavy. Larkin stated that his firm is not interested in doing push polls, but said that Dunleavy’s office had a significant role in shaping what they tested and was involved in working on the questionnaire.
“It is entirely appropriate to provide relevant context … the question should be, is the context accurate and is it directly relevant,” Larkin stated at the press conference. “We just disagree with the interpretation of the type of work that we do.”
A push poll is a poll designed to influence voters by asking specific questions about an issue or a candidate.
Dunleavy’s poll, commissioned at the cost of $37,500 looked at voter attitudes towards school funding and the state of Alaska’s schools, and included a report card score that averaged a C-. The final question before respondents were asked to supply personal information such as age and voter registration was whether they thought funding or school reform was more important.
Before this question was asked, respondents were informed that “Alaska is among the top five states in the nation when it comes to education spending on a per student basis,” and that “student graduation rates and test scores in Alaska’s public schools consistently rank among the lowest in the nation.”
Alaska ranks seventh in the nation, but economic studies show that the state is below average in purchasing power. This is due to the large number of small, rural schools throughout the state, as well as a higher cost of living.
Alaska’s fourth grade reading scores have dropped continuously since the last significant increase to the BSA in 2017, while districts have been forced to increase class sizes and have lost about a fourth of their teaching staff.
Respondents largely recognized that Alaska’s schools are underfunded, and at 77% support for increased funding, this question received the highest affirmative answer throughout the entire poll. It mirrors data collected in a poll last month contracted by the AFL-CIO showing that 70% of Alaskans opposed Dunleavy’s veto of education funding in Senate Bill 140.
Respondents were also informed earlier in the poll that the school age population was decreasing, and that some buildings were not filled to capacity, but not given any information on how many buildings operate below capacity, or whether under capacity buildings are the only school in the communities they served.
The poll also asked respondents if they supported increased funding for charter schools, after informing respondents that these schools have specialized curriculum or a unique approach to teaching, recently ranked number one in the nation, and have waiting lists for students who want to attend. Sixty-four percent supported greater funding after being supplied this information. The study referenced in the poll has drawn scrutiny from Alaska lawmakers, school officials and researchers who expressed concern over small sample size and other limitations such as demographic differences between charter school and neighborhood school students.
The poll did not ask if respondents supported Dunleavy’s proposal to hand local control of charter schools to the state, a plan opposed by many charter schools themselves. Larkin and Dunleavy both said that it was not discussed while working on the questions.
The 33% of respondents who said they believed funding was the most important were asked to clarify “if it were necessary to reduce PFDs in order to supply this funding, would you support or oppose that?” A majority of these respondents, 68% of them, would support reducing PFD’s to divert funding to schools.
A slide deck provided by Dittman reported a list of key findings which said that 23% of respondents supported reducing PFD’s, and while they are using a different color font, they did not include a notation that only 33% of respondents were asked the question, leading Dunleavy, news outlets and blogs such as Must Read Alaska to report this statistic incorrectly.
Only 37% of poll respondents have school age children. Of those, only 61% attend public schools, 19% attend charter schools, 14% are home-schooled and 6% attend private school. Larkin stated during the press conference that parents of public school students were underrepresented in the poll.
On the ‘report card’ scoring question, parents of home-schoolers gave Alaska’s schools the lowest average scoring, while parents of kids attending public schools gave the highest average score.
Thirty-nine percent of poll respondents were over the age of 55, while 22% were between the ages of 18 and 34. Thirty percent of actual voters are between 18-34. Undeclared voters were also underrepresented in the poll, while non-partisan and voters registered as Democrats or Republicans were over represented.
“I think it’s a moral outrage that it’s just about funding,” Dunleavy stated during the press conference.
Senate Bill 140, which he vetoed, included increased funding for both charter and home schools as well as added a coordinator position to help more charter schools form. It also included money to implement the READS act, a sweeping school reform bill passed in 2022, but not fully funded.
