Only 34% of NYers Approve of Bloomberg Education Performance

Recent news, to be published in Wednesday, September 7, 2011 New York Times,
in a CBS News/ New York Times poll of 1,027 New York City residents, only 34 percent approve of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's performance in shaping New York City schools. The 34 percent figure represents a historic low for the mayor, since a peak of 67 percent approval in October 2005 and June 2006 CBS/ New York Times polls.

Sharon Otterman and Alisson Kopicki report in "New Yorkers Say Mayor Has Not Improved Schools" that most of the polled New Yorkers say that the Department of Education schools have declined or stagnated since Mayor Bloomberg took control of the school system nine years ago.

One of the mayor's trademark trends has been breaking apart schools and housing multiple schools in one building. When questioned about the latter trend, 48 percent said that housing multiple schools in one building was a bad idea, and 39 percent said that the practice was a good idea.

The leading concerns of polled residents were in this order: funding, easing overcrowding and teacher quality.

Ironically, when the subset of parents of schoolchildren were polled about their satisfaction with the choice of their child's school, 67 percent said that they were satisfied.

Here is the online link for the New York Times survey of New Yorkers' opinions about the New York City school system.