It’s a triple whammy for Mayor de Blasio: Voters don’t see eye to eye with him on taxing the rich to pay for pre-K, or his stances on charter schools and horse carriages, according to a new poll.
The Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday shows that voters — by a 54-35 percent margin — would rather have the state pay for an expansion of pre-K classes in the city than boost taxes on the rich, as the mayor has proposed.
Gov. Cuomo has said he’d effectively write the city a blank check for the next five years, contributing as much as the city can reasonably spend on the extra classes.
Voters also said they’re at odds with the mayor’s views on charter schools. Forty percent said they’d like to see more charters, while 39 percent said the current number was fine.
Only 14 percent advocated reducing the number of charters — something that de Blasio’s bid to limit their space in public school buildings would likely trigger.
“The 79 percent of New Yorkers who want to protect or expand public charter schools represent a pretty clear mandate on this issue, and the numbers are even higher among public school parents,” said Jeremiah Kittredge, director of Families for Excellent Schools.
When it came to the question of whether charters should pay rent for their classrooms that are in government facilities, those polled were split — with 44 percent saying yes and 47 percent saying no.
De Blasio has said he wants to charge the more profitable charter chains for use of public facilities, a practice that’s been embraced elsewhere but that would be new in the city.
De Blasio’s overall record on education was viewed negatively by 49 percent of those polled and favorably by 38.
Voters also dumped on de Blasio’s plan to ban carriage horses from Central Park — one of his firmest pledges during the mayoral race — by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.
The pollsters surveyed 1,234 voters from March 12 to 17, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
Some observers said it’s too soon to draw broad conclusions on de Blasio.
“I personally think polling in the first three months of any elected official’s tenure is silly . . . I think it’s much too early,” said Jerry Skurnik, a political consultant and partner at Prime New York.