Californians overwhelmingly approve new education standards: poll

Most Californians support dramatic changes set to take hold in public education, including funneling more money to schools with disadvantaged students and implementing rigorous national standards known as the common core curriculum, a new poll shows. Nearly three-quarters of Californians also say they support free preschool for all 4-year-olds, a measure that has been proposed by Democrats in the legislature but met with skepticism by Governor Jerry Brown, the poll by the Public Policy Institute of California released Wednesday night showed. "Public support is solidly behind the significant changes that are being made to school funding and classroom curricula this year," said PPIC President Mark Baldassare. After hearing a brief description of the Common Core, criticized by some conservatives as a federal takeover of local public schools because the Obama administration is pushing for the change, 69 percent of California residents interviewed said they supported the standards, Baldassare said in a news relea