Poll of Newark Residents Reveals Impact of Coronavirus on Majority-Minority City

High Ratings for Gov. Murphy & Mayor Baraka’s Responses, but not President Trump

Kids’ Education Tops Concerns Among African-Americans

As the coronavirus crisis disproportionately impacts communities of color, Newark-based non-profit Project Ready commissioned a poll of Newark residents to reveal how the people of a majority Black and Latino city in a hard-hit state are experiencing the pandemic.

The poll of 457 residents finds strong approval for the response to the crisis for Mayor Baraka and Governor Murphy and disapproval for President Trump, widespread economic and education-related concerns – with African Americans the most concerned, and differing opinions by race on how much children are falling behind in school and how to catch up.

“These poll results show that Newark is being hit hard by the coronavirus – in more ways than one,” said Shennell McCloud, Executive Director of Project Ready. “With the coronavirus disproportionately impacting communities of color, we need to pay close attention not just to the health and economic situation, but to the disparities in how this crisis is impacting education in communities of color. We hope that policymakers find it helpful in determining how to allocate resources to our community, particularly when it comes to top-tier concerns like education, housing, and unemployment.”

While almost all (95%) Newarkers express serious (80% very and 15% somewhat) concerns about the coronavirus, African-American residents (84%) are more likely to express very serious concerns than white residents (68%). Eight in 10 (79%) residents know someone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus.

Strong ratings for Mayor Baraka and Governor Murphy, but not President Trump

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (75% approve, 18% disapprove) and Governor Phil Murphy (83% approve, 14% disapprove) garner strong positive ratings for their response to the crisis, with only 19% approving and 75% disapproving of the job President Trump has done.

Education and economic concerns share the top spots

When forced to choose two from a list of top concerns, African-Americans rated “Education for Newark kids” (41%) as their top concern. Among all Newarkers, education (36%) ranks in the top-tier issues of concern, roughly equal to housing (38%), job security (35%) and food security (36%).

Widespread economic fallout

The economic fallout from the pandemic is widespread, with 50% saying they or a member of their household has had their working hours reduced, lost a job (41%), or been unable to pay the rent or mortgage (40%). Evictions and foreclosures have not hit people yet (3% impacted households). On the plus side, 37% of residents have received their $1,200 payment from the federal government and another 36% expect to receive it soon.

Just 15% of Newark parents say they have picked up free meals from public schools. Among all residents, just 8% have picked up food from a food pantry.

Only slight majority of parents are satisfied with remote learning program

Only 57% of parents are satisfied with their child’s remote learning program (61% of public school parents) while 35% express dissatisfaction. African-Americans are more likely (19%) to be very dissatisfied with their child’s remote learning program than Hispanics (8%) and whites (0%). Fathers are split (44% satisfied, 44% dissatisfied) while mothers rate it more positively (66% satisfied, 30% dissatisfied). Overall, 87% report that the child in their household has a laptop or tablet with internet access. This includes 95% of Hispanics and 83% of African Americans.

Parents worry over children falling behind because of distance learning

Six in 10 parents believe their child has fallen behind a lot (19%) or some (42%), including a large share of Hispanics (68%). Only a third believe they are not falling behind too much (20%) or at all (16%). While both express concern about falling behind, fathers (73%) worry more than mothers (54%). A larger share of whites (34%) believe their child is “not at all” falling behind compared to African-Americans (15%) and Hispanics (14%).

Mixed feelings about remote learning program

A third of Newark parents with children in school (34%) find the remote learning program “well put together” and 22% indicate they are “excited by it.” More mothers (43%) than fathers (21%) consider the program “well put together.” Negative selections to describe the remote learning program include “frustrated by it” (25%), “poorly constructed” (23%), and “done with it” (15%). Among Newark Public School parents, frustration (32%) outnumbers poor construction (24%) and explicit rejection (12%).

Parents prefer summer school and extended school days to catch up

Around four in 10 parents choose summer school (41%) and extended school days (39%) to catch up on school, but there are racial differences in preferences. African-Americans (48%) are more likely to prefer summer school compared to Hispanics (36%) and whites (34%), while 55% of whites prefer to extend school days compared to 40% of African-Americans and 36% of Hispanics.  A similar share are fine with doing nothing (42%) and only 4% prefer repeating a grade.

High compliance with safety guidelines

Nearly all Newarkers say they wear a mask either always (87%) or sometimes (11%) when they leave their home. Just 2% say they never wear one. When asked about how their family and friends are following Governor Murphy’s orders, two-thirds (66%) say all of them do. Another 29% say most of them do.

Methodology

Polling was conducted online from April 17-19, 2020. Using its Dynamic Online Sampling technology to attain a sample reflective of adults, Change Research polled 457 people in the city of Newark. Post-stratification weights were made on age, gender, zip code, education, and race and ethnicity to reflect the distribution of registered voters. All polls are subject to errors caused by interviewing a sample of persons, rather than the entire population. In 95 cases out of 100, the responses to this survey should be within plus or minus 5.5 percentage points of those that would have been obtained from interviewing the entire population of likely voters. The sampling error for subgroups of the survey will be greater.