Ignoring Complexities Polls are fickle. Polls are less useful for understanding the public's views on complex issues. Education reform strategies, for example, require not only a familiarity with the issues, but also an understanding of all the consequences and trade-offs surrounding them. If the respondent is not well informed and does not hold a firm view on the subject, that person's view is likely to change with new information. Polls are not the best means of testing the waters for change.
People tend to be skeptical of new ways of doing things until the new ideas become popular.
But polls neither allow for this initial skepticism nor accurately predict what changes will eventually be embraced. Treating a poll as an evaluation of a public service is the greatest misuse of this instrument. Polls never differentiate respondents according to their experience in and around schools and educators. When they express their negative opinions through the ballot box, they can block necessary funding as much as informed citizens can. If the Ford Motor Company asked some owners of Fords their opinion of the vehicles and received neutral or negative responses, Ford would know that it had a performance problem.