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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Self-esteem of the electorate: Potential tool for UC?

Self esteem
California has been famous (infamous?) for its self-esteem movement.  And it is also famous for the popular love of direct democracy.

A PPIC poll recently released is in the headline for showing an uptick in popular and voter approval of the governor, the legislature, etc.  But when asked who should make key long-term decisions, the popular response by about three fourths of those polled is that it should be left to voters, not the legislature or the governor.

I suspect that there is some opportunity here for UC if we continue to get gubernatorial mucking around at the Regents on online education and other matters.  Framing is important.  What do you think the polling response would be to a question such as "Should the governor and the legislature force college students to take courses on line rather than in class?"

Here is the PPIC poll results on leaving matters to voters rather than to the legislature and governor:
Click on the image to enlarge.
We do need a new Master Plan for Higher Education.  But it won't happen unless there is a process different from having the governor personally intervene at Regents meetings as has been occurring.  That isn't how Pat Brown did it originally.

The full PPIC poll is at:

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