Nearly three-quarters of parent voters want more charter schools

Yesterday’s Quinnipiac poll results showed the chancellor’s popularity holding steady. But no one would call him popular — his approval rating has never broken the 50 percent mark.

Not true for charter schools. The poll results Quinnipiac released today show that 67 percent of registered voters in New York City want to see more charter schools open. Among public school parents, the number rose to 72 percent. Support for an expansion was highest in Brooklyn and the Bronx, where charters are prevalent. One caveat: Only registered voters were polled. In a city of immigrants, many public school parents are not registered to vote.

As far as I can tell, this is the first time Quinnipiac has asked about charters. A poll commissioned by a pro-charter group last year found that more than 80 percent of Harlem voters thought parents should have an option other than their local school. But in that poll, three-quarters of voters said their local schools were not good. Nearly half of voters responding to today’s Quinnipiac poll said they are satisfied with their local school. (At 48 percent, however, that number has nearly as much room for improvement as Chancellor Klein’s popularity rate.)

The poll also confirms the finding from last January that New Yorkers want to see mayoral control continue, but they aren’t terribly happy about the way Mayor Bloomberg has exercised his control.