FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — For the fourth consecutive year, researchers at the University of Arkansas are conducting the Arkansas Poll — a random-sample telephone survey of adult Arkansans on political and policy issues. Calling for the poll commenced on Oct. 9 and will wrap up on or before Oct. 20. Results from the poll will be released to the media statewide on Tuesday, Oct. 29.

"One of the reasons we conduct the Arkansas Poll each year is because it represents a chance for the University to serve the community and state that support us," said Janine Parry, assistant professor of political science and director of the poll. As a land-grant institution, the University of Arkansas has a responsibility not just to impart knowledge to its students, Parry asserted, but to distribute knowledge among all Arkansans in a way that both informs and empowers.

By opening a line of communication between citizens and policymakers, the Arkansas Poll enables both to make more informed decisions about politics and the direction of progress in the state. "At no time has that been more important than in this fall’s high-stakes, hotly-contested election cycle," Parry said.

Consisting of 65 questions, the 2002 poll addresses a series of critical issues, including education finance and reform as well as public perception about local and statewide development and its impact on quality of life. In addition to collecting standard information on demographics, party affiliation and approval ratings for various public officials, the 2002 poll also contains questions relating to each ballot issue in the November election.

"We’ve received a flood of inquiries from people who want us to track public opinion of candidates in the upcoming election, but we’ve resisted using the poll for that purpose," Parry said. "The function of the Arkansas Poll is not to follow the horserace but to facilitate communication — informing the public and candidates about pressing policy issues. No matter who gets elected this fall, they’re going to need accurate, impartial and timely information to do their job, and that’s what we provide."

Timely information is particularly crucial to the topic of education reform. With the Arkansas Supreme Court on the brink of declaring the state’s public education finance system unconstitutional, Arkansas faces the prospect of pumping an additional $400 million to $1 billion into its education budget each year.

Several plans have been proposed to guide school reform and raise the additional money, including Gov. Huckabee’s Next Step Plan and the state legislature’s Blue Ribbon Commission. But up to this point, little statewide public opinion data has been collected to indicate the preference of Arkansas citizens in implementing and financing education reform, Parry said.

Gary Ritter, an assistant professor in the UA department of educational leadership, counseling and foundations who helped develop the education reform questions for both the 2002 and 2002 polls, indicated that the importance of this issue could not be overestimated. Faced with a similar ruling, New Jersey has struggled for 30 years to reform its public schools into an educationally adequate and financially equitable system, Ritter pointed out.

"Precedent tells us that this issue is going to have a huge impact on the state for years, perhaps decades, to come," he said. "And public opinion is going to play a major role in the way the state legislature sets out to tackle the problem."

Providing a record of public opinion on this and other issues represents one of the primary functions of the Arkansas Poll. Over the past four years, the poll has generated a substantial database — a compendium of attitudes and opinions across the state that scholars will be able to use for decades to come, not just to examine political sentiment but also to identify social trends or to provide context around historical events.

But in addition to providing data for scholarly research, the poll serves Arkansas leaders by connecting them to the values and outlooks of their constituents. Such insight can help officials better serve citizens and more effectively represent their views.

"If we expect our system of government to be truly representative, it must first be responsive — with elected officials and policymakers reacting to the needs and concerns of the people they serve," Parry explained. "There’s a relationship between policymakers and the public, and the only way for that relationship to be mutually beneficial is for communication and feedback to flow both ways."

In this way, the Arkansas Poll acts as a voice for citizens throughout the state — an opportunity for individuals to give their opinions and feel confident that their values, their concerns and their needs have been heard.

Sponsored by the Diane D. Blair Center for Southern Politics and Society, the Arkansas Poll is designed primarily by researchers in the UA political science department and administered by the University’s Survey Research Center. Using a computer-aided telephone interviewing (CATI) system, trained interviewers place thousands of calls in order to obtain 750 completed surveys. Each respondent is screened to make sure they are at least 18 years of age and an Arkansas citizen.

Over the past four years, the poll has identified and tracked numerous critical issues in Arkansas, collecting public opinion data on affirmative action, property taxes, abortion, medical marijuana, environmental policy, the economy and the role of women in public office, among other topics. Results from the 1999, 2000 and 2001 polls can be accessed online at http://plsc.uark.edu/arkpoll/.