February 28, 2005
Report & Analysis · Data · Other Poll Releases
Georgians generally are opposed to teaching evolution as the sole explanation for the origins of our species. Less than one in five Georgians (17 percent) believe that public schools should teach evolution to the exclusion of other theories not broadly adopted by the scientific community. A slim majority (54 percent) feels that religious theories should be included in the classroom, and almost one in four (23 percent) believes that the schools should not teach evolution at all.
On the subject of another controversial issue, 72 percent of Georgians oppose the idea of granting driver’s licenses to undocumented aliens after hearing arguments both for and against such a policy.
The Peach State Poll is a quarterly survey of public opinion conducted by the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
Other Peach State Poll results:
* Education is the most salient issue for most Georgians. Twenty-seven percent of respondents cited education as the most important problem facing the state, followed by the economy and jobs (16 percent).
* Although 41 percent of the public expresses a high level of confidence in their local public schools, the public has far less confidence in the public school system in the state as a whole (24 percent).
* When it comes to post-secondary public education, the public exhibits far more confidence than it shows for primary and secondary education. Fifty-five percent of the public express high levels of confidence in the state’s system of universities and colleges, and 38 percent cite high levels of confidence in the state’s system of adult and technical colleges.
* In October 2004, Georgians were about as likely to say that the economy was getting worse as they were to say it was getting better; however, in February 2005, a larger proportion of the public believe that the economy is getting better (47 percent) than getting worse (31 percent).
These data were taken from a Peach State Poll survey conducted between January 31 and February 10, 2005. The poll included 800 telephone interviews of randomly selected adults in Georgia. For a sample of this size, the margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level is +/-3.5 percent.
