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Poll: New Yorkers Find Bloomberg's Take-Over Of Public Schools A Failure

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New Yorkers are giving Mayor Michael Bloomberg mixed grades in his handling of public schools, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday.

Poll director Maurice Carroll said Bloomberg is trusted less than the teachers union to put students first.

"The union comes in for an awful lot of bad publicity, a lot of criticism, but New Yorkers tell Quinnipiac they trust the union more than the mayor to protect the interests of public school children," Carroll told 1010 WINS.

Extra: Check Out The Results Here

The poll found 69 percent of parents of public school students trust the union more than the mayor.

Fifty-seven percent of voters said Bloomberg's take-over of the schools has been a failure.

The majority of voters want the next mayor not to have total command over the schools and to share control with an educational group.

Voters do support some of Bloomberg's initiatives, including his policy to use teacher performance, not seniority, when considering layoffs.

They also favor paying up to $25,000 in student loans to attract teachers, $20,000 annual raises to teachers ranked "highly effective" two years in a row, and making it easier to fire poor performing teachers.

Overall, 46 percent of voters approve of Bloomberg's job performance, compared to a 49 – 42 percent approval rating in December.

"Mayor Mike's job approval numbers barely change and voters still say they like him personally," Carroll said.   "New Yorkers think the history books will say Bloomberg has been a good mayor – not great, but not bad."

The poll surveyed 1,222 registered New York City voters from Jan. 30 to Feb. 5. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus three percentage points.

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