Old White Dudes Do Not Support the Strike

By JoshMogerman in News on Sep 16, 2012 9:00PM

With teacher’s meeting to discuss terms of a draft negotiated contract agreement this afternoon, it may not matter what non-CTU members think about the strike after today. But given the national attention, it is worth noting coverage from Springfield-insider and Sun-Times columnist Rich Miller looking at a poll breaking down strike friends and foes. What is striking is that the folks most against the CTU's actions probably don’t have much skin in the game: old white dudes who are unlikely to have CPS students in their household:

“The poll, taken after three full days of no school, found that a 52 percent majority of whites disapprove of the strike. Whites were the only ethnic group that expressed a majority disapproval of the strike.

African Americans approved 63-32 and Latino support was even higher at 65-32.

A majority of parents with kids in private schools opposed the strike, 52 percent to 43 percent, while parents with public school kids approved of the strike 66-31.

And senior citizens narrowly disapproved of the strike 47 percent to 46.8 percent, while all other age groups backed it. The older the person was, the less he or she supported the strike. Indeed, a whopping 65 percent of older white males with no kids in public schools opposed the strike.

As always, its pretty tough to separate the big issues in this town from ethnic politics, something Miller hammers home when he notes that white students make up less than 9% of the CPS student body, but we wonder if there is more going on here...