Mark Baldassare Public Quotations

There are real concerns in the general public about who is going to be left behind, and those concerns are particularly evident among African-Americans and Latinos. There's a sense that when students fail, you need to help them achieve.

The reasons for the special election and the reasons for the specific proposals the governor is endorsing are not something that are energizing the public right now or generating a lot of support.

As long as the governor has education in the mix, the public will be supportive.

There's still a long way to go, but the governor is still looking to find the key to what will change public opinion. While his measures may not have moved in a negative direction, there's no sign that voters have any more inclination to support his package.

Clearly, without having a policy in place on where we're going, the public itself seems to be going toward mailing in the ballot. No matter what direction is coming out of the state capital, that's the direction that the public is going in.

Clearly the governor got the message of the special election. The question is whether the words translate into action in Sacramento and move the state in the direction the governor says he would like to go and the public says they would like to go.

It's an unfortunate irony that state leaders were unable to reconcile their differences, while voters - who are often deeply split along partisan lines - were very much in agreement. This was an opportunity to give the public something it collectively wanted.

The public is frustrated and disappointed with what they see as a lack of progress in improving the quality of education. Because the issue is so important to them, (voters) want to see officials at all levels engaged, even if they're not directly involved (in education).