That is the beginning of the end of the NEA
Nearly nine out of ten Oregon residents would send their children to private, charter, or virtual schools, or educate their children in a home school setting if they had the decision-making authority, according to the results of a public opinion survey released today by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, the Cascade Public Policy Institute, and several other state and national organizations. Eighty-seven percent of residents polled would opt for schools other than regular public schools, according to the survey.
You can go here and read the internals (pdf) of this poll, which look very respectable.
While doing that, remember that Oregon is a very, very blue state (with some decent sized red splotches). If someone can take this poll and the ones previously done for this organization over the past three years or so and craft and communicate a sensible plan, they could potentially get some very decent portions of the national parental vote (if you know what I’m saying).
As an Oregon resident, I would say that Oregon trends “blue to libertarian.” A huge percentage of the opposition to the Republican party and “things of the right” here is due to people being non-interventionist. Republicans do pretty well here in most areas at the local and state level, but poorly at the national level, due to what the Republican party has become. The problem we face is that there is no fiscally conservative, socially liberal or permissive (as in, “we’ll keep money out of this but do your thing if you don’t hurt people”) party to fill in the gap. That’s what we need!
I know people here who call themselves “raging liberals,” although when it comes to details I would actually call most of them libertarians or borderline libertarians. They just support the Dems because they are social permissives, and a lot are dismissive of social programs and tax rates.
I’m telling you – if the federal government brought our military home from the rest of the world, legalized pot, let gay people marry, stopped sending loads of money overseas, and cut taxes, we’d have TONS of money in this country to take care of a robust infrastructure, and a party that pushed a “status quo” of that particular situation would kick ass. These are the people that vacillate between parties in the elections, the “undecideds,” based on certain big ticket issues. The Republicans aren’t fiscal conservatives, so why vote for them if you believe in small government?