Bloomberg’s Approval Rating Continues to Slide

A poll out Wednesday from Quinnipiac University shows that most city voters still give Bloomberg failing grades. Just 40% of voters approve of the way he runs the city and only 25% say he’s doing a good job of running the schools.

If Mayor Bloomberg thought replacing controversial schools Chancellor Cathie Black would pull his approval rating out of detention, he was mistaken.

His approval rating on schools hasn’t budged since he replaced Black, a publishing executive with no experience in public schools, with Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, a former student and teacher in city public schools.

City parents are even less impressed than the general population. A whopping 78% of voters with kids in the schools say Bloomberg’s doing a lousy job.

“Mayor Mike, you said you wanted to be the ‘Education Mayor,’ but New Yorkers don’t think you’ve learned how to do it,” said Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll.

“They give you a low grade on education and they think your takeover of the schools has been a flop.”

The once-popular mayor has fallen in voters’ esteem over the last few months in the wake of a scandal involving a corrupt computer contractor, a botched blizzard clean-up and the surprising appointment of Black to the chancellor’s job.

Black lasted less than three months on the job before Bloomberg – facing a voter uproar – replaced her in April.

Bloomberg’s approval rating is up 1 percentage point from March when it was 39%, but that’s within the poll’s 3.2% margin of error. Quinnipiac surveyed 962 registered voters between May 4 and 9.

Walcott’s approval rating is even lower than Bloomberg’s. Only 31% of voters say he’s doing a good job, although nearly half the people surveyed – 48% – said they don’t know enough to form an opinion.

Still, many voters are optimistic about Walcott, with 50% predicting he’ll improve the schools over the next three years.

“After just a few weeks in office, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott isn’t getting rave reviews, but voters are hopeful,” Carroll said. “Maybe Mayor Bloomberg is hopeful that he and Walcott can polish up the Bloomberg legacy.”