The study released Monday by SMI has been widely circulated in Missouri’s blog world. The state’s patron saint of blogging, Mr. Combest, linked to the Post-Dsipatch article yesterday. The Arch City Chronicle linked to the story. The writers at Fired Up! Missouri were not fans. We appreciate the inclusion and discussion by Fired Up!, in any case. However, none of the criticism from Mr. Beale gets at the poll results as they stand, which is that 67% of Missourians support various forms of school choice. Just because the polling firm has done work for Republican officials on other issues does not invalidate the poll results. One should feel free to question the methodology (which was standard and sound) or the phrasing of the questions (also standard and sound), but merely saying the poll is wrong because the group that commissioned it is headed by a strong supporter of school choice is silly. The spokesman of the Missouri School Boards’ Association commits the same logical fallacy in the Columbia Tribune article on the survey. Mr. Ghan needs to tell us, or more precisely, you (the readers) why the study is wrong. The fact that we have previously published articles in support of school choice is irrelevant to whether the study was conducted properly. To my knowledge, no one has disputed that the study was conducted properly.
New to the web scene in Missouri is the Missouri Political News Service, and we wish them well and thank them for their coverage. The ArchPundit has been out on vacation until recently, but we hope he shares his thoughts on the study, too. Hopefuly, Pub Def, who seems to be everywhere at once, will chime in as well, with thoughts supportive or not. Finally, we thank Missouri Pulse for its coverage and comments on the study, here and here.
