Keeping with the past five years, public education tops the concerns of Illinois residents, according to an annual survey from an NIU group.

Earlier this month, the NIU Center for Governmental Studies released its 2001 Illinois policy survey aimed at addressing what’s on residents’ minds. The 17-year-old effort is based on a telephone poll of 1,206 participants across the state who were asked about state-spending priorities, quality of life, education and public officials.

Asked to name the most important issue facing Illinois, 28 percent of respondents said education, 12 percent said taxes, 11 percent said crime and 4 percent said unemployment.

Center instructor Jason Akst said the results accurately reflect the general views of Illinoisans.

“The survey is pretty highly regarded because of its long track record and accuracy,” he said. “After the survey is completed, we present copies to the state legislators and they use it as a basis for policy.”

Survey director Cynthia Nelson said recent focus on education reform at the national and state levels has continued statewide concern and support for public education.

“The results of the survey show residents of Illinois have a continuing and bipartisan concern for education,” Nelson said. “Outside of Chicago, residents show support for their public schools and agree that they should receive more funding.”

Public education was respondents’ top choice for state spending, with 77 percent of people from all different political parties saying education spending through 12th grade should be increased.

Respondents also commented on recent public eduction reform proposals, such as raising teacher education and certification standards, using standardized tests for students and tying federal funding for schools to student achievement. Most reacted favorably to the majority of the proposals.

“Most of the people were consistent in saying they supported public schools, because they also supported most of the recent reform proposals,” Nelson said. “This is especially true regarding increased reading tests and permitting students to pass to the next grade level only if they have reached the proper level of achievement.”

The only negative feedback came from a question that asked if Illinoisans would like parents to choose private schools at the public’s expense.

Sixty percent of respondents said they’d like parents to have more say over their children’s education. One proposal that aims to increase parental choice includes various scholarships and vouchers, and almost 50 percent of respondents favored these.

“Public opinion on this issue has multiple dimensions because of the diverging views on the two questions about school choice,” Nelson said. “People may want to expand choices for parents but neglect the idea of channeling public funds into private education.”

President Bush recently proposed the voucher system in an effort to increase competition between public and private education institutions. Despite this move by the Republican administration, the survey responses on vouchers come from all sides of the political spectrum, Nelson said.

In other results, Illinois residents agreed that their state was a safe, affordable and overall great place to live. General feelings about how things are going statewide have increased from last year, with 20 percent more respondents satisfied and positive feedback increasing over personal finances.

The state did not fare as well as a retirement location, as shown by the largest negative rating of the survey. Twenty percent gave Illinois a “poor” or “very poor” ranking as a retirement locale, and about the same percentage said the state did not have reasonably priced housing.

“Perhaps one of the reasons people do not think Illinois is a good place to retire is that the majority of respondents do not think it has reasonably priced housing, and that is one of their most important considerations in deciding where to live,” Nelson said.