San Jose Mercury News

SANTA CRUZ -- Four out of five Californians are displeased with the quality of K-12 public education and a majority want school funding to be the last thing lawmakers cut, but only half are willing to pay more taxes to avoid slashing.

That's according to an April statewide survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, which released its report today.

Results from telephone surveys of 2,502 adults conducted April 8-22 show that Californians view education as the most critical issue after the economy, which includes employment concerns. Yet 84 percent said the quality of public school systems is either a major problem or somewhat of a problem -- up 4 percent from last year.

Although 63 percent said they believe giving schools more money would increase the quality of education, the institute said the biggest unanswered question is how taxpayers expect to fix the schools if they're evenly divided on paying more to preserve funding.

"People are uneasy with the way we make decisions about education, but they haven't yet changed their views on how involved they should be in paying for it," institute President Mark Baldassare said Wednesday.

Only 60 percent of Democrats and 33 percent of Republicans said they would support tax increases for education funding. Geographically, 57 percent of Bay Area residents support higher taxes for school dollars, figures that drop to 52 percent and 51 percent in the Central Valley and Inland Empire.

"There is consensus on the problem and the need for resources, but there's no commitment to action," Baldassare said.

However, a top lawmaker sees a bit of good news in the survey. Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who chairs the Assembly Budget Committee, said when the governor's dismal budget predictions were first announced in January, surveys showed far fewer than half were willing to pay more for schools.

"This is significant in that it shows real movement on behalf of the public," Laird said Wednesday. "While their support for education has been constant, this is the movement toward the balanced approach we've been talking about."

Laird has been calling for a combination of revenue enhancements and cuts to balance next year's budget, which is facing a projected shortfall of at least $8 billion, possibly up to $20 billion based on unequal projections from both parties. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he is willing to consider some new revenue, but would rather see the state's mandated spending formulas, such as the Proposition 98 funding plan for K-12 education, be revamped.

Without new revenue, Laird said rescuing schools from the chopping block "would be virtually impossible without just decimating things in other parts of the budget," considering education makes up roughly 50 percent of the budget.

The survey also found:

• 60 percent want public school funding shielded -- ahead of health and social services 18 percent, higher education 11 percent and prisons 8 percent.

• Half consider public school quality a major problem; 31 percent said somewhat of a problem.

• 54 percent said their local district would get an A or B; 67 percent of parents said their local public schools earned an A or B.

• 85 percent said the state needs to make better use of education funding. Four out of five want local districts or teachers and principals to allocate state money.

• 65 percent would back school construction bonds; 48 percent back increasing property taxes across the board.

That's pretty good news for Allison Niday, president of the Scotts Valley school board.

Niday, a leading proponent of a $55 million bond measure on June's ballot to build a new middle school and make other improvements, said, "It's encouraging to see that people do highly value their public schools, and that they recognize the lack of funding available to broaden the educational scope, or even maintain what most would consider a minimum, and that they are willing to support districts' efforts to provide adequate facilities for kids."

But Francisco Rodriguez, president of the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, the union for county's largest district and the one hardest hit by the state budget projections, said California shouldn't consider more taxes on working-class families. Rather, he said, the state's wealthiest should shoulder more of the burden of saving schools, and a majority of those surveyed agreed.

Sixty-four percent supported increasing taxes on the state's wealthiest while 34 percent said no. The figures were exactly reversed when the question was whether to raise sales tax statewide.