McFreedom

Saw a story on CNN.com, "Study: Most Americans oppose vouchers." Sounds pretty conclusive, doesn't it? And it's by Reuters, the news agency so impartial, they won't even call Osama bin Ladin a terrorist! The first line of the story is, "Most Americans oppose the use of public funds to help parents send their children to private or church-sponsored schools, according to a study released Tuesday." It's not just that the headline writer was looking for a catchy grab; that's the main thrust of the story.

Everything I've read on the voucher issue indicates to me that we are a nation - as they say - deeply divided on the issue of vouchers. So, I clicked through to see how conclusive the data was. You know the result? 52% reject vouchers; 46% are in favor with 2% undecided/other. Oh, and the poll had a margin of error of +/- 4%! It's mathematically possible that for the general population, 48% oppose vouchers and 50% support! Any honest, competent reading of those numbers would generate the title, "Study: Americans split on voucher issue."

But, it gets better. I checked Gallup, looking for the original question to see how it was phrased, since the story doesn't provide much information, there. Gallup doesn't have much up on the study, though. I decided to check out Phi Delta Kappa, who comissioned the study. In their detailed results page, they give the questions used. And, it's interesting. The question about vouchers which ended up with 52% of the population opposing and 46% supporting was, "Do you favor or oppose allowing students and parents to choose a private school to attend at public expense?" Immediately after that, though, they asked another question on the same topic: "A proposal has been made that would allow parents to send their school-age children to any public, private, or church-related school they choose. For those parents choosing nonpublic schools, the government would pay all or part of the tuition. Would you favor or oppose this proposal in your state?"

For the second one, 52% support, 46% oppose. The exact opposite of the first question. Even if you didn't understand statistics, how could any human being smart enough to work a word processor decide, while trying to be "objective and unbiased," that this study says Americans oppose vouchers? On one question they barely did and on the other they barely didn't. Either of them could be the opposite of reported because of the margin of error. Even worse, look back at the first line of the story. Now look at the second question. Clearly the reporter read the second question - it's where he got the wording for the opening line. But that second question is the one a majority supported.

Did the reporter and I read the same study results? Or is he so incompetant he didn't realize it was 52% opppose on one and 52% support on the other? Or, maybe - just maybe - did he let his own personal bias about how the study should have gone color his reporting?