Nearly three out of four Marylanders support legalizing marijuana and raising state education spending, according to a new poll. The survey found that 77 percent approve of pot legalization while 73 percent favor lifting the cap on how much money can be spent per student in public schools.
Marylanders support legalizing marijuana and boosting school spending, a poll finds. The survey found that 64% of Marylanders believe the state should legalize marijuana while 66% want to boost school spending.
According to a new Goucher College survey released Tuesday, a majority of Marylanders want recreational marijuana legalized and believe the state spends too little on public schools.
The survey indicated that 60 percent of Marylanders favor making marijuana legal for recreational use, which is down seven percentage points from the identical question posed in March.
“Certainly, a seven-point dip is something to keep an eye on,” said Mileah Kromer, director of Goucher College’s Sarah T. Hughes Center for Politics, which conducts the Goucher Poll. “But for now, I’d say the overall picture is that recreational cannabis legalization is still popular in the state.”
State House Speaker Adrienne Jones revealed her plan to place the topic of whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use on the ballot in 2022 between the publication of the March and October polls.
The survey also indicated a resounding majority in favor of preserving legal abortion access.
“However, there is a gap – roughly 44% of people feel abortion should be permitted in all situations, with no limits,” Kromer added. “Another 44% say they favor abortion access but also accept certain limitations.”
The survey did not inquire about the limits that respondents would want to see implemented.
Women were more likely than men to say they favor abortion access in all situations, with 49 percent of women and 38 percent of men agreeing.
When questioned about state expenditure on K-12 education, 54 percent of those surveyed thought the state invests too little. The findings are similar to those of past Goucher surveys.
This viewpoint is especially popular among inhabitants of color. In contrast to around 45 percent of white people, over three-quarters of Black Marylanders questioned believe the state spends too little on public schools.
Women are also more likely than males to believe the state spends too little on public schools (58 percent of women vs. 49 percent of men), as do those under the age of 55 vs. those over 55.
A majority of Maryland residents (47%) believe the state spends too little on housing and community development, as well as roads and highways.
Gov. Larry Hogan, one of the elected individuals making such choices, has a strong approval rating of 68 percent, according to the survey.
Kromer said she is regularly asked why Hogan, a Republican, is so popular in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a two-to-one margin. She responds to that query by citing other poll findings.
“Because the majority of Marylanders believe the state is on the right track and the majority of Marylanders have a favorable opinion of the state’s economy, they will undoubtedly have a positive assessment of the governor’s performance,” she added. “Typically, all three of these things are linked.”
Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, Maryland’s U.S. senators, have approval ratings of 44 percent and 46 percent, respectively.
However, more than a quarter of survey respondents indicated they don’t know whether or not they approve of the tasks their senators are doing, making it difficult to assess their approval ratings, according to Kromer.
“On the one hand, both Van Hollen and Cardin have above-average approval ratings, indicating that more Marylanders approve than disapprove of their work,” Kromer said. “Both Cardin and Van Hollen have a majority of support among Maryland Democrats.”
Kromer also cautioned against comparing the senators’ popularity ratings to those of Hogan. Governors, she claims, are more prominent and have a higher name recognition among poll respondents than members of Congress.
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