MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) — According to the latest MTSU Poll, Tennesseans are giving Gov. Bill Haslam's proposal to create a school voucher program mixed reviews.
Middle Tennessee State University pollsters asked 650 likely voters if they support the Governor’s plan to use state funds to send poor children in failing public schools to private institutions.
Pollster Ken Blake says 40 percent of those polled favor vouchers, while 46 percent do not. That’s a statistical dead heat given the poll’s plus-or-minus four percent margin of error.
Blake says things get interesting, though, when you view the results along racial lines,
“Minorities are far more supportive of the voucher program than whites are. And if you look at attitudes just among whites you find that whites in Middle and West Tennessee are especially opposed.”
Blake notes that while results divide along racial lines, they don't divide along party lines.
“We found that Republicans and Democrats and Independents are pretty much equally divided. One group is not more or less in favor than the other.”
Attitudes in Tennessee concerning gun control and gay marriage were also surveyed in the latest MTSU Poll. Those numbers will be made available in coming weeks.