MILWAUKEE — A Marquette University Law School Poll survey of registered voters across Wisconsin this summer found 46% of respondents expressing satisfaction with the public schools in their community, down from 63% in a poll asking the same question in October 2023. Seven percent in summer 2024 were “very satisfied” with their public schools, down from 12% last fall. In the latest poll, 39% reported themselves “satisfied,” compared to 51% last fall. This summer’s survey was conducted June 12-20, 2024, interviewing 871 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.6 percentage points. Overall, the June levels of satisfaction with public schools “in your community” were the lowest in any of the 16 Marquette Law School Poll surveys that have asked that question of Wisconsin adults, going back to 2012. Over the previous polls, before this survey’s 46%, the lowest satisfaction total was 59% (January 2020). That total included at least 15% who said they were “very satisfied” in each survey prior to 2023. The June 2024 poll found 41% were dissatisfied with the public schools in their Wisconsin community, including 17% who said they were very dissatisfied. The dissatisfied percentage was the highest on record. Another 13% of those in this summer’s poll gave no opinion, a shift from previous surveys, which had not previously surpassed 8% without an opinion. The full trend in satisfaction with public schools is shown in Table 1. All results in the tables are stated as percentages; the precise wording of the questions can be found in the online link noted above. “The rise in dissatisfaction is seen across all regions of the state, but especially in the city of Milwaukee, where more than three-quarters reported dissatisfaction,” said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll. In the latest poll, among those surveyed who live in the city of Milwaukee, 2% said they were very satisfied with the public schools, 20% were satisfied, 41% were dissatisfied, and 37% were very dissatisfied. In other parts of Wisconsin—including the rest of the Milwaukee metropolitan area, the Madison area, and the Green Bay area—between 51% and 56% expressed satisfaction, including 8% to 10% of voters who were very satisfied. Table 2 shows opinion by region. The survey in June was conducted while management issues for Milwaukee Public Schools were attracting major attention and the MPS superintendent had resigned abruptly, but dissatisfaction with public schools has been consistently higher over time in the city of Milwaukee than in the rest of Wisconsin. In the October 2023 survey, 3% of Milwaukee residents said they were very satisfied, 44% said they were satisfied, 36% were dissatisfied, and 17% were very dissatisfied. There was a large difference in the summer 2024 poll in satisfaction between Wisconsinites who identified as Republicans and those who identified as Democrats. Among Democrats, 74% said they were very satisfied or satisfied with their Wisconsin community’s public schools, while 26% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. Among Republicans in Wisconsin, 37% were very satisfied or satisfied,…

Majority of those polled view justices’ decisions as motivated mostly by politics, while opinion is divided on the Court’s honesty and ethics MILWAUKEE – A new Marquette Law School Poll national survey finds that 43% of adults approve of the job the U.S. Supreme Court is doing, while 57% disapprove. In May, approval was 39% and disapproval was 61%. The trend in approval since 2020 is shown in Figure 1 and Table 1. (All results in the tables are stated as percentages; the precise wording of the questions can be found in the online link noted above.) Table 1: U.S. Supreme Court approval Among Adults Poll datesApprovalApproveDisapprove7/24-8/1/2443575/6-15/2439613/18-28/2447532/5-15/24406011/2-7/2341599/18-25/2343577/7-12/2345555/8-18/2341593/13-22/2344561/9-20/23475311/15-22/2244569/7-14/2240607/5-12/2238615/9-19/2244553/14-24/2254451/10-21/22524611/1-10/2154469/7-16/2149507/16-26/2160399/8-15/206633Marquette Law School Poll, national surveys, latest: July 24-Aug. 1, 2024Question: Overall, how much do you approve or disapprove of the way the U.S. Supreme Court is handling its job? The latest Marquette Law School Poll’s national Supreme Court survey was conducted July 24-Aug. 1, 2024. The survey interviewed 1,005 adults nationwide and has a margin of error of +/-4 percentage points. Public opinion about recent decisions   The poll asked about seven recent decisions of the Supreme Court: Large majorities of the public favor the ruling that it does not violate the Second Amendment for the government to take guns away from people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from a court (U.S. v. Rahimi). Two-thirds favor the decision that maintained access to a widely available abortion pill, mifepristone, and rejected a bid from a group seeking to undo the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the pill (FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine). A small majority favors the decision that upheld city ordinances that prohibit people who are homeless from sleeping and camping on public property, ruling that such ordinances do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Constitution (City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson). A similar small majority of the public favors a decision that states cannot bar Donald Trump from election ballots based on the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause (Trump v. Anderson). A majority opposes the decision that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its statutory authority when it prohibited bump stocks which enable semiautomatic rifles to fire at speeds rivaling those of machine guns (Garland v. Cargill). A majority also opposes the decision that while there is no immunity for unofficial acts, former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts as president (Trump v. U.S.) Two different question wordings were asked on the Court’s decision that overturned the 1984 Chevron decision, which required courts to defer to executive agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes (the 2024 decision being Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo). A random half-sample was asked Version 1, and the other half-sample was asked Version 2. The majority reverses between the two wordings of the question, with a majority opposed to the ruling when the question simply says the ruling overturns deference to agencies, but a majority favoring the decision when the question adds that courts must exercise independent…