Poll: Arizona Voters Give Schools Failing Grade, Yet Hobbs Leads Biggs

FIRST ON DAILY SIGNAL—Nearly 80% of Arizona voters have an unfavorable opinion of public education in their state, one of the few areas of agreement between Republicans and Democrats in the weeks leading to Election Day.

The League of American Workers shared the polling data exclusively with the Daily Signal.

Only one-quarter of Arizona eighth graders are proficient in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

With taxpayers footing the bill for public education, including through property taxes, 51.3% of survey respondents said Arizonans are getting a very poor return on their investment. Another 27.1% said it was a somewhat poor return.

Just 14.5% considered public education to be providing a good return for their spending, while 7.2% were unsure.

Majorities of conservatives, liberals, and moderates say they’re getting a poor return on public education spending, including 67.2% of Democrats.

Despite voters’ disdain for public education, those same respondents gave strong marks to the Empowerment Scholarship Account program, which provides taxpayer-funded scholarships for parents to use for private schools. Arizona voters favor the ESA program by a margin of nearly 16 percentage points, 44% to 28%.

Arizona ranks second overall on The Heritage Foundation’s Education Freedom Report Card for its embrace of ESAs.

“Arizona does exceptionally well in empowering families to choose among private, charter, and district schools as well as other learning environments,” the report card states. “Arizona offers K–12 education savings accounts (ESAs) that all families can use to customize the education of their children.”

Governor’s Race

In addition to surveying voters on hot-button issues in Arizona, pollster Steve Cortes also asked voters about the governor’s race between Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Republican Rep. Andy Biggs.

Among likely voters, Hobbs leads Biggs 48.9% to 43.2%, with 4.5% undecided and 3.4% backing another candidate.

Neither candidate enjoys particularly strong favorability ratings. Voters view Hobbs nearly evenly, with 47.1% favorable and 47.8% unfavorable. Biggs fares slightly worse, with 40.2% favorable and 48.8% unfavorable ratings.

Yet one of Hobbs’ highest-profile vetoes remains politically unpopular.

After learning that Hobbs vetoed legislation prohibiting sex-transition procedures for children, 44.9% of voters said they would be less likely to support her, compared with 27.5% who said they would be more likely to support her. Another 24.4% said the veto would not affect their vote.

Immigration and Muslim Migration

The poll found broad support for stronger immigration enforcement.

A combined 57.9% of voters said state and local law enforcement should cooperate with federal authorities on immigration enforcement, while 36.9% said they should not. Nearly half of respondents, 46%, said local police should “definitely” cooperate with federal officials.

Arizona voters also expressed deep skepticism about the effects of mass migration.

More than 42% said recent mass migration into America has made their community worse, while just 19.7% said it has made their community better. Another one-third said it has not made much difference.

When asked specifically about Muslim migration, nearly half of voters, 49.3%, said mass migration of Muslims has been negative for American society. Only 16.1% said it has been positive, while 29.1% said it has been neither positive nor negative.

Socialism vs. Capitalism

Arizona voters expressed a clear preference for capitalism over socialism.

Only 27.9% of respondents reported a favorable opinion of socialism, while 61.4% viewed it unfavorably. Capitalism received the opposite reception, with 64.1% expressing a favorable opinion and 28.3% viewing it unfavorably.

The survey also found overwhelming skepticism toward China. Just 14.5% of voters view China favorably, while more than 72% hold an unfavorable opinion.

Personal Finances

Economic concerns remain a major issue for Arizona voters.

Nearly 44% of likely voters said their personal financial situation has gotten worse over the past year, compared with only 16.7% who said it has improved. Another 38.8% said their finances have remained about the same.

Voters were also asked whether they believed their financial situation would be better or worse today if former Vice President Kamala Harris had been president instead of President Donald Trump over the last two years.

A plurality of voters, 45.2%, said they would be worse off under Harris. By contrast, 37.9% said they would be better off, while 10.6% said their financial circumstances would be about the same.

Even though many Arizona voters remain frustrated with their current financial circumstances, they are not convinced the Democrat alternative would have produced better economic results.

The survey of 1,513 likely voters in Arizona was conducted Oct. 3-6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

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