New Yorkers Say Mayor Has Not Improved Schools
Dennis M. Walcott, the New York City schools chancellor, has not yet made a strong impression, with 53 percent of those polled having no opinion on his performance.
By SHARON OTTERMAN and ALLISON KOPICKI
Published: September 6, 2011
New Yorkers are broadly dissatisfied with the quality of their public schools, and most say the city’s school system has stagnated or declined since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took control of it nine years ago, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll.
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How the Poll Was Conducted(September 7, 2011)
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Mr. Bloomberg has made improving the schools a focus of his mayoralty, seizing authority over the bureaucracy, doubling the budget and opening hundreds of additional, small schools. Still, even as his overall approval rating, 45 percent, is at a six-year low, considerably fewer residents — 34 percent — approve of how the mayor is handling education.
“What had been a signature issue for Bloomberg may not be the legacy issue he hoped it would be,” said Bruce M. Gyory, a political consultant and adjunct professor at the State University of New York at Albany.
In follow-up interviews, poll respondents expressed various
