Most voters dislike FCAT use

But they don’t know the positions of the gubernatorial candidates on use of the test.

By THOMAS C. TOBIN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 29, 2006

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Most Florida voters don’t like how the state uses a standardized test to grade schools. But ask them which candidate for governor would change things, and they are far less certain.

Fifty-nine percent of voters in a St. Petersburg Times poll said they oppose how the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is administered as the centerpiece of a strict accountability system for public schools. The number was even higher in the Tampa Bay area.

In other words, they agree with Jim Davis, the Democratic candidate for governor. But only 36 percent said they trust Davis to handle the task of improving public schools.

The flip side: 40 percent said they trust Republican candidate Charlie Crist to improve schools. But only 32 percent agreed with Crist’s position that the FCAT, as currently administered, is a good thing for Florida’s schoolchildren.

One explanation: When asked who they trusted to solve a specific problem, people went with the candidate they like in general, said Tom Eldon, vice president of Schroth/Eldon & Associates, the firm that conducted the poll for the Times.

“They don’t understand completely every candidate’s position on the issues,’’ he said, noting that the numbers signal a potential opportunity for Davis.

“Davis hasn’t had a lot of money to talk to voters, and people aren’t as aware of where he stands on the issues,” Eldon said. ''He will probably pick up voters if he talks about the FCAT.”

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