Voter Insights

A Poll of Los Angeles Voters

New poll shows Los Angeles voters want the next mayor to prioritize public education. 

The city of Los Angeles is at an inflection point. As the city chooses its next mayor, we face the interrelated challenges of growing inequality, an unhoused crisis, and dire workforce shortages. We commissioned this poll to learn voter perspectives on education and how they expect our next mayor to prioritize education. Education is an important issue that can shape the future of Los Angeles. Our next mayor can prioritize public education by leading city and school district collaboration, and engaging the civic, philanthropic, and business community to help maximize the resources and supports our students receive.

Major Trends and Findings

Voters share their perspectives on education and how they expect our next mayor to prioritize education.

  • Education is a clear, urgent priority for LAUSD voters.

    Voters from across the political spectrum expressed fundamental concerns about a range of education issues, particularly the ability of schools to prepare students to succeed as adults, the health, safety and well-being of students, and a lack of equal access to quality education. Education is on par with the economy, police/community relations, healthcare, and the pandemic as a priority issue for the next mayor of Los Angeles.

  • Voters from all demographic and political backgrounds express serious doubts about the quality of education in Los Angeles.

    Just 12% of respondents believe that every neighborhood in Los Angeles has a good K-12 school. Only 30% rated the quality of education provided in the LAUSD schools positively and the majority of voters believe that the quality of K-12 education in the LAUSD is worse today than it was before the pandemic.

  • There is strong agreement that there is a “digital divide” in Los Angeles when it comes to education.

    Voters strongly agree (78%) that the children of families in underserved communities are disadvantaged at school because of limited access to quality internet resources.

  • There is a consensus that the quality of education provided in Los Angeles schools has fundamental consequences for the quality of life in LA.

    At least 75% of respondents believe that LA’s quality of education has an impact on the unemployment rate, homeless and poverty, and the quality of the local workforce in the Los Angeles area.

  • Voters are adamant that the next Mayor of Los Angeles has the responsibility to prioritize education.

    85% of respondents believe that the Mayor is responsible for the quality of education provided to LAUSD students and the majority (59%) say that they want the next Mayor to take a more active role in decisions that impact LA students than previous mayors. 77% believe that the Mayor should be held accountable for ensuring that “all children in Los Angeles can go to a good school.”

Methodology

The poll was conducted by Gotham Research Group over the phone from February 14 through February 25, 2022, among a representative sample of 602 registered voters likely to vote in the upcoming 2022 election for Mayor of Los Angeles.

The study was conducted in English and Spanish by telephone using live interviewers. Voters were randomly selected from the latest updated list of registered voters in Los Angeles.

All respondents reside in one of the seven Board Districts of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The margin of error on the total sample of 602 is +/- 4.0% (at a 95% confidence level).