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Press Call: USC Dornsife/LATimes Poll Takes on CA Public Schools

11/22,10 a.m. PST: Poll examines questions relating to taxes, teacher pay, mandatory testing and other key issues

Media Contacts:
Suzanne Wu at (213) 740-0252 or suzanne.wu@usc.edu
Michelle Salzman at (213) 821-9311 or msalzman@dornsife.usc.edu
Merrill Balassone at (213) 740-6156 or balasson@usc.edu

WHAT: A press call to discuss the latest findings from the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll. The latest poll, conducted Oct. 30 - Nov. 9, 2011, focused on the state of California's public schools, including how teacher pay should be determined, charter school funding and the CA Dream Act, with important implications for the future of the nation's largest public education systems.

Panelists include political and education analysts from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC Rossier School of Education, and representatives from polling firms Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and American Viewpoint.

Results include:

• Do voters think CA teacher pay should be tied to student performance on standardized tests or to classroom experience?
• Where do Californians place blame for problems in public schools -- and how do they want to fix them?
• Are Californians willing to pay more taxes to improve public education?
• How do voters feel about the recently passed CA Dream Act, which allows non-legal high school graduates to be eligible for financial aid at the state's public universities?

The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll includes a significant oversample of Latino voters in California, providing an important closer look at the state's fastest-growing voter group.

WHEN: Phone conference Tuesday, November 22 at 10 a.m. PST

WHO: Panelists include:

Dan Schnur, director of USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll and director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at USC
Dominic Brewer, Clifford H. and Betty C. Allen Professor in Urban Leadership and professor of education, economics, and policy at the USC Rossier School of Education
Representatives from polling firms Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and American Viewpoint

HOW: Call-in spots are limited. To reserve a spot for the phone conference, RSVP to Suzanne Wu at suzanne.wu@usc.edu.

Call-in numbers:

United States: (800) 230-1951               
International: +01 (612) 234-9960

WEB SITE: http://dornsife.usc.edu/poll
TWITTER: @usclatpoll

About the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences/Los Angeles Times Poll: The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll is a series of statewide public opinion polls in California, designed to survey voter attitudes on a wide range of political, policy, social and cultural issues.

Conducted at regular intervals throughout the year, the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll is one of the largest polls of registered voters in the state and has been widely cited, helping to inform the public and to encourage discourse on key political and policy issues.

About USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences: USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is the heart of the university. The largest, oldest and most diverse of USC's 19 schools, USC Dornsife is composed of more than 30 academic departments and dozens of research centers and institutes. USC Dornsife is home to approximately 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 750 faculty members with expertise across the humanities, social sciences and sciences.

About the Los Angeles Times: The Los Angeles Times is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, with a daily readership of 2 million and 3 million on Sunday, and a combined print and interactive local weekly audience of 4.5 million. The fast-growing latimes.com draws over 10 million unique visitors monthly.