Obama's Education Approval Stats

All week long, you've heard aboutareon education. Now it's the president's turn to be graded.
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US President Barack Obama speaks during an event in the East Room of the White House January 7, 2013 in Washington, DC. Obama announced his nominations of White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKI (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
US President Barack Obama speaks during an event in the East Room of the White House January 7, 2013 in Washington, DC. Obama announced his nominations of White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKI (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

All week long, you've heard about how states are doing on education. Now it's the president's turn to be graded.

HuffPost/YouGov asked the American public what they thought about Obama's performance in the education arena. And they think he's doing fine.

First, HuffPost/YouGov this week asked a representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adults, Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama has handled the issue of education? Thirty-nine percent indicated they approve, 33 percent said they disapproved, and 28 percent weren't sure. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minute 3.8 percentage points.

What does this mean?

"To have both approval and disapproval of Obama under 40 percent suggests to me that most people haven't thought much about Obama in terms of education and don't associate him with any major education initiatives," Emily Swanson, HuffPost's polling director, tells me (over gchat). "More people approve than disapprove, which probably means that most people don't have any strong negative feelings, but right now people probably don't consider Obama to be a leader on education initiatives."

Also interesting here is the racial split. Thirty-three percent of white respondents say they approve, compared to 68 percent of black participants and 46 percent of Hispanic participants.

Next, the pollsters asked: "How much of a difference do you think a president can make in improving education?"

Forty-one percent of respondents indicated they thought a president could make "a major difference," 33 percent said he could make "a minor difference," 12 percent said " no difference" and 13 percent weren't sure.

That's interesting to me because as many of you know, the federal government controls less than 10 percent of the nation's public education budget.

Check back next week for some more exciting polling!

**Extra Credit:** Now it's your turn to answer.

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