A recent poll conducted by The Dallas Express found that a majority of the parents and guardians surveyed who have children attending Dallas Independent School District (DISD) want more transparency from the troubled administration.
Participants were asked, “Do you support more transparency for your local school district?”
Respondents were also asked to register their political leanings.
The poll followed the most recent scandal at DISD, where a teaching assistant died after a student with special needs allegedly acted out violently for the third time, attacking the woman after the district apparently opted to keep the student in DISD, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The woman’s surviving sons are currently suing DISD for gross negligence and claiming the district did not inform them that she was attacked and did not report the assault to the police.
The lawsuit is only the latest fiasco plaguing a school system that continues to produce poor student outcomes in spite of its dedicated educators and hardworking staff.
An earlier poll of DISD residents credited the district’s dysfunction to mismanagement.
The most recent poll, however, surveyed residents outside of DISD too, and the results proved surprising.
A deeper dive into the polling data revealed a bipartisan plurality of respondents living in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area think their local school districts should be more transparent.
The survey found that a combined 45% of respondents, including DISD residents, answered the transparency question in the affirmative, including individuals who self-identified as on the “far left” and the “far right.”
However, more than one-fifth (23.1%) seemed satisfied with their school districts, opting not to vote in favor of increased transparency.
Exactly one-third of respondents were unsure and declined to align with the yeas or nays.
According to the poll, 19.6% of all participants self-identified as far left and 12.8% on the far right, while 17.9% considered themselves “center-left” and 22.2% identified as “center-right.” A plurality of respondents (27.3%) self-identified as “centrists.”
The Dallas Express reached out to DISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde and the district’s elected board of trustees, informing them of the poll’s results, and asked if they felt the district could be doing more to increase transparency.
No response was received by press time.