DENVER (KDVR) — A new survey reveals interesting opinions about Denver and its schools, but the school board did not exactly get rave reviews.
Denver Families Action released survey findings that show how people feel about newly seated Mayor Mike Johnston, Denver Public Schools and the Board of Education. FOX31 had some questions about the survey and the group behind the survey, Denver Families Action.
Clarence Burton Jr. is the group’s CEO.
“It’s not every day that you have this moment where you’ve got a big change in the city with a new administration in the city coming in, lots of energy and optimism around that. We want to check to see how folks were feeling about that and contrast that with an upcoming school board election,” Burton told FOX31 on Tuesday.
Who is Denver Families Action?
Denver Families Action conducted the survey of 500 likely Denver voters this past July. FOX31 wanted to know more about the group.
“Denver Families Action is a community-based organization here in the city of Denver,” Burton said. “We work with families, educators and concerned members of the community to get them engaged in shaping the public education system here in Denver.”
The group is looking to endorse school board candidates soon for the upcoming election in November. Before that happens, it released the survey results, showing 71% of the 500 respondents have a favorable opinion of Mayor Mike Johnston, 59% have a favorable opinion of Denver Public Schools and only 30% have a favorable opinion of the DPS Board of Education.
“Voters were looking at the incoming administration and Mayor Mike Johnston, there is a high favorability there,” Burton said. “And then they also were asked about Denver Public Schools overall, and we saw, again, strong, favorable numbers; folks are looking at our public schools and saying, ‘We like our public schools in Denver.'”
“It was really shocking to see that trend not continue for the school board itself,” Burton said. “So there is a question there that voters have, and I think residents in Denver have, about, specifically, about the leadership.”
Who was surveyed?
Absent from the data the group sent FOX31 is more information about who these respondents are: Where do they live in Denver? What’s their ethnic background?
“We tried to get a representative sample of those 500 likely voters from across the city of Denver, so it wasn’t concentrated in any one part of the city,” Burton said.
The group got back to FOX31 late Tuesday afternoon with more insight on demographics:
- 57% of Black voters surveyed were favorable of the school board, 29% of Black voters surveyed were unfavorable
- 28% of Latino voters surveyed were favorable of the school board, 50% of Latino voters surveyed were unfavorable
- 28% of white voters were favorable of the school board, 52% of white voters were unfavorable
- Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters 18 and up were surveyed.
FOX31 reached out to Denver Public Schools for comment on the survey from district leadership or school board members but had not heard back by late Tuesday afternoon.
