A text poll in the field this week is probing whether the recent arrest of Superintendent Ian Roberts is a “convincing” argument against a bond issue that is a priority for the Des Moines Public Schools.
Voters in the Des Moines school district will decide on November 4 whether to approve a $265 million, 20-year general obligation bond to finance the Reimagining Education, Reinvigorating Schools initiative. The referendum needs at least a 60 percent “yes” vote to pass; the district hopes to expand or remodel all of the Des Moines high schools and nearly a dozen middle or elementary schools.
The survey tests two messages against the bond referendum and two supporting it, with a ballot test before and after respondents read the arguments. I enclose below the full questionnaire, drawn from screenshots shared by those who took the “Des Moines Schools Survey.”
Representatives of Yes for Des Moines Schools, a political committee formed this summer to support the bond issue, did not respond to Facebook or email messages seeking to confirm whether the group commissioned the poll. But the results could provide valuable information to that organization, which had raised $105,000 by mid-July, according to a campaign finance disclosure.
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