Public's Renewed Focus on Education Could Teach Governor a Lesson

This is to be expected for any politician. And Schwarzenegger, after all, has become a politician, much as he'd still like to be seen mainly as a Hollywood superstar, a Sacramento outsider.

But many people -- mostly Sacramento types -- were thinking that this particular politician just might be invincible.

He might be yet, but a poll released today by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California shows some chinks in Schwarzenegger's popularity.

Republicans still love him. But Democrats are having serious doubts about some of his policies, especially on schools.

"This was a very revealing survey for me in terms of the change of public opinion from a year ago," says the institute's pollster, Mark Baldassare.

The poll, conducted after the governor's State of the State speech and new budget proposal, shows that 51% of California adults disapprove of the way Schwarzenegger is handling K-12 education. Only 34% approve. Democrats especially disapprove -- 72% of them.

At a Sacramento Press Club luncheon Wednesday, Schwarzenegger blamed "special interests," presumably teachers unions.

"It's very important for the people to understand," he said, "that there are special interests out there who will do everything possible to make the people believe

Yes, the governor proposed a $2.9-billion bump in school spending. But that's $2.3 billion less than what schools are owed under a deal he cut -- and reneged on -- with ed leaders.

There is a small storm brewing in the electorate, not yet a perfect storm, but a significant confluence of disturbances.

At the very moment people are expressing doubts about Schwarzenegger's treatment of schools, education is reemerging as the "most important issue facing California," in the public's view.

Asked by the poll to name their No. 1 issue, 22% of those surveyed listed education. That was followed by the budget deficit and taxes, 20%, and the economy and jobs, 15%.

It has been three years, Baldassare says, since education ranked No. 1 in his poll. Last January, it rated only No. 3. The budget then was No. 1, followed by the economy.

So Schwarzenegger may be hitched to a dying horse, the economy issue.