The Campaign for Vermont recently released its second batch of results from a scientific public opinion poll of Vermonters. The survey interviewed 400 randomly selected Vermont residents to measure their feelings towards state leaders, various issues that policymakers are pursuing, and general sentiments about the direction the state is heading.
“Vermonters’ consistent negative ratings of the economy, infrastructure, schools and housing costs — especially among Independents — means that elected officials and policy makers should focus first on problem solving and ‘basic’ quality of life issues,” said Keith Frederick, one of the pollsters involved in the project.
The results released show that Vermonters identify housing, cost of living, and public safety as the top issues they care about. Further, respondents gave highly negative ratings on key issues, such as 77% giving the availability of affordable housing the lowest possible score. Infrastructure and general economic sentiment also found poor ratings with 73% and 69% negative, respectively. Even education, which historically Vermonters are proud of, only found 34% positive ratings. Perhaps even more telling is that negativity towards public schools shot up to 71% in households with children, suggesting that parents are more likely to have a negative view of the quality of education than the general public.
“The Legislature, quite frankly, is out of touch with what Vermonters are asking for,” said CFV President Pat McDonald. “They have squandered opportunities to make meaningful progress on housing. Instead of focusing on creating better education for Vermont students they are instead more interested in removing the quality educational options we have in independent schools. Instead of investing in our infrastructure and local environment, they prefer to spend big on carbon reduction.”
Campaign For Vermont is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization with a mission to “advocate for public policy changes by reconnecting middle-class Vermonters to their government.”
For more information visit: CampaignForVermont.org/news.
