Wisconsin cautious about Obama health care plan; Milwaukee poised for reform

(Note: This article was updated on Feb. 9, 2010 to correct the statement that this poll was a partnership between the UW–Madison Department of Political Science and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI). In fact, the poll was directed by Ken Goldstein, a UW–Madison political science professor, working with WPRI.)

More Wisconsinites oppose President Barack Obama’s health care plan than support it, according to a new poll that also shows a majority of Milwaukee County residents favor a mayoral takeover of the Milwaukee Public Schools.

More than one-third of state residents mostly oppose the president’s proposed changes to the health care system, while 28 percent mostly support them. More than 35 percent said they still don’t know enough to respond, the poll found.

The survey of 700 randomly selected Wisconsin adults was conducted by phone with live interviewers from Sept. 27-29. It was directed by Ken Goldstein, a UW–Madison political science professor, working with the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

The survey also found nearly half of Wisconsin residents said reducing costs is the single biggest problem that needs to be solved by health care reform, while 26 percent said covering all Americans, and 16 percent said increasing quality. Only 2 percent said the health care system is fine as it is.

“President Obama enjoys higher-than-national-average job approval numbers in Wisconsin, but it has not translated into support for the general outlines of his health care reform,” Goldstein says. “Even after many months of talk and debate, 35 percent of Wisconsinites are still undecided and in play in the health care reform debate.”

The survey found that most state residents are satisfied with the quality of their local public schools. More than 58 percent give them a grade of “B” or higher, while less than 6 percent give them an “F.” Residents of Milwaukee County are much more critical of their own public schools; only 35 percent give their local schools an “A” or “B,” and almost one-fourth give their local schools an “F.”

School choice remains popular in Milwaukee, with 55 percent of Milwaukee County respondents supporting vouchers for low-income families and 34 percent opposing them.

And a majority of Milwaukee County residents (53 percent) are in favor of giving the mayor of Milwaukee control of the city’s public schools, including the power to choose the next superintendent and appoint school board members. Almost one-third of Milwaukee County residents oppose the idea.

“We are seeing that Milwaukee is ready for dramatic change in its schools,” says George Lightbourn, president of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. “A quarter of the people we asked gave their schools an ‘F’ for failure. Yet significant margins support the most vigorous school choice in America and now support the mayoral takeover of the public schools. Milwaukee seems ripe for education reform.”

The poll has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points. The margin of error will be higher for sub-group analysis. The sample of Wisconsin adults was selected by random digit dialing (RDD) of landline phones; cell-only households were not included.

WPRI — a nonpartisan, not-for-profit think tank — has been conducting independent, annual polls on politics and issues for more than 20 years. Working with Goldstein, the institute will survey state residents every four months. The next poll will be conducted in the spring.

Goldstein is also director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project at UW–Madison. Known for his nonpartisan, unbiased research, Goldstein has worked on national network election night coverage in every U.S. federal election since 1988, and is currently a consultant for the ABC News elections unit. During the 2008 presidential election, he was also the co-founder and director of the Big Ten Battleground Poll.

Detailed poll results on these issues — as well as Wisconsin residents’ views on various political leaders, the economy and the state’s direction — can be found at http://www.wpri.org.