Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Education Survey - TPR's In Focus - Sept. 18, 2026

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Education Survey - TPR's In Focus - Sept. 18, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Rosa Parks Museum on Troy University's
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  Montgomery campus, located on the spot of Mrs.
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  Parks' historic 1955 arrest and featuring exhibits
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  that chronicle the history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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  More information at troy.edu/rosaparks.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is the
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  News Wrap from In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  Todd Stacy, host of Alabama Public Television's Capitol
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  Journal, shares the results of a survey about
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  public support for education in Alabama.
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  And we're all ears for the
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  wild card.
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  Todd Stacy, welcome back to the News Wrap. Good to be with you.
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  You were watching a certain survey recently. Well,
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  that's right. PARCA, the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama,
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  released its latest edition of the Public Opinion Survey. They do
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  a lot of public polling, and especially on the education side. But they
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  want to know, how do people think about public education in this state? And it
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  enjoys broad support. So this is just a sample of, of all Alabamians.
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  Do we spend enough on public education? Do we not spend enough?
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  When it came to K through 12 public schools, 73% of
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  Alabamians said we don't spend enough on education, and just
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  17% said enough, 6% said too much. So clearly
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  people want the state to spend more on education.
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  But when it comes to how to get that money, when asked
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  would they be willing to pay more property taxes, just 36%
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  said yes, 61% said no. Would you be willing to pay more
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  in sales tax? 38% said yes, 61% said no.
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  Same thing for internet sales tax. Same thing for income tax.
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  Would you be willing to pay more income tax? 62% said no.
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  People want more funding for education, but they don't want to
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  actually have to pay more taxes to pay for it. A basic concern these
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  days is about inflation. Oh, sure. And I
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  mean, it's not just an issue for every American that
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  has to buy groceries or anything else. It's an issue for the state in terms
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  of everything costs more. Fuel costs more. All the supplies
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  cost more. Building a building, all the costs have gone up,
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  not just for everyday citizens, but for governments.
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  The pot of money gets smaller even though we have record funding in
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  this state. When things are more expensive, things can get tight. Tell me about
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  the support of public media. Here we are, the first day
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  of our fall fund drive, and our theme is Power
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  to the public. What are your comments on support
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  for public media these days? I love that theme,
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  power to the public. That's certainly something we take seriously at
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  Alabama Public Television, and I know y'all do too. This is the
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  public's station. This is the public's airwaves, and we take that responsibility
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  seriously. Just this week, we had a board meeting here at APT.
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  There were about 35 people that attended
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  the meeting to offer their public comments. These people came from 2 hours,
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  3 hours away just to show up to speak out
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  and speak up for public television. That was amazing
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  to me. It just reminded me of the dedicated viewers
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  and listeners that we have and how much they value public media.
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  And so I encourage everybody to donate whatever you can,
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  invest yourself in public television. Public broadcasting. You'll never regret
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  it. And, um, we appreciate that support. Heartfelt words,
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  Todd. We thank you. How about a wild card? Well,
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  we love our animal stories. This one comes from, speaking of public broadcasting,
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  NPR. And they've discovered that this donkey,
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  Hank, it's been documented, he has the longest donkey ears
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  in the world, 17.12 inches long. And those
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  are the longest ears of any donkey according to
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  the Guinness World Record. So Hank the Donkey, and hee-haw!
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  Well, it's great that the donkey's putting his ears to public
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  radio, public media. Hey, he's not going to miss a note.
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  So Todd, who is on Capitol Journal? Well, we're continuing our
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  effort to interview all statewide candidates for office. This week
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  it's lieutenant governor candidates. That's John Wall on the Republican side
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  and Phillip Ensler on the Democratic side. Also going to be talking with Josh
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  Vaughn of the Alabama Trucking Association. This is Trucker
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  Week. So we're going to talk about the trucking industry and the hardworking truckers of
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  this state tonight at 7:30 on Alabama Public Television.
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  Thank you for joining us for the News Wrap. Thank you. That was Todd
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  Stacy, host of Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal.
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  More information can be found at the aptv.org
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  website and on YouTube.
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  Thanks for joining us for the News Wrap from In Focus, which is
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  a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported
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  Troy Public Radio.