Dave Houston is looking forward to voting no on Proposal 1.
Houston, a father of two children in the East Lansing School District, said the Michigan voucher proposal is too radical to pass, and he believes it will inevitably take money away from public school districts and hurt education in Michigan.
“The proponents’ ads have been misleading,” Houston said. “They advertise that (vouchers) won’t take money away from public schools because there is a surplus in tax dollars, and that’s just not true.”
If Proposal 1 passes, residents from certain school districts would be able to use about $3,000 annually in state vouchers to pay for tuition at private or parochial schools.
According to an Oct. 12 poll of 600 likely Michigan voters, more and more people agree with Houston. The poll says only 32 percent of those polled support school vouchers, opposed to 59 percent who are against the measure.
The poll was conducted for The Detroit Free Press by EPIC/MRA, a Lansing-based polling firm. The poll had a 4 percent margin of error.
Ed Sarpolus, vice president of EPIC/MRA, said most voters are confused by the issue, and when voters are confused, they are inclined to vote against it.
“The voting public is confused, and until the proponents start focusing on why people should vote for this, there will be mistrust,” Sarpolus said. “The opponents were helped by the proponents not telling people why they should vote for (school vouchers).”
The voucher advocate group, Kids First! Yes!, has spent millions of dollars on media campaigns, but the group has not received support from Catholics, blacks and west Michigan voters as they were expecting.
Kids First! Yes! spokesman Greg McNeilly called the EPIC/MRA poll unreliable and said the proposal is being illegally attacked by teachers and officials in school districts.
Pre-law junior William Baldwin, a supporter of vouchers, said the dip in popularity is due to negative press and sentimental attachments to public school districts.
“I think people are (seeing) a lot of bad press and are being overly protective of the current (education) system,” Baldwin said. “They’re showing hometown support for school districts, even if they’re failing.”
Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, supports school vouchers, while the Democratic candidate, Vice President Al Gore, opposes them.
Sarpolus said the next few weeks will define the future of school vouchers in Michigan. For Proposal 1 to pass Nov. 7, voucher advocates will have to speak directly about vouchers and how they will affect public and private schools, he said.
“We’ll see which side has better communication,” Sarpolus said. “It will get harder, because once those poll numbers get well over 50 (percent), not only do you have to recruit new voters, but you have to convince others that their initial opinion was wrong.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
