New Poll Conducted by Andrew Young School: Among Georgians, State Flag Ranks Low As A Legislative Priority.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 14, 2003

Adult residents of Georgia recently described changing the state flag as the least urgent of eight issues facing the Georgia legislature.

In the winter 2003 Georgia State Poll, conducted by the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University from January 13 to February 2, only 2.3 percent of adults felt that changing the state flag was the most urgent issue on the legislative agenda and only an additional 3.5 percent thought it ranked second. In comparison, 38.6 percent gave top priority to creating new jobs.

For a complete look at these new findings and the methodology, visit the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at www.andrewyoungschool.org.

When the same adults were asked about the flag issue in isolation, however, opinion was as unbalanced as ever. The gap between African-Americans and whites remained wide. Only 26 percent of whites thought the previous Georgia State flag should have been changed compared to 74 percent of African-Americans. Thus the almost complete polarization by race on this issue remains. However, African-Americans expressed more intense feelings than whites. Although 52 percent of whites felt very strongly that the flag should not have been changed, 71 percent of African-Americans very strongly endorsed the opposite position. Nevertheless, when placed in the wider context of the other issues facing Georgia, not many in either of these groups thought the issue merited the attention of the Georgia legislature.

Even the dedicated supporters of the former flag placed the issue only above one other--lowering air pollution--and then by a little less than a percentage point (2.6 percent vs. 1.7 percent). Among an even smaller subgroup--whites living outside of the five-county Atlanta metropolitan area who felt very strongly that the former flag should not have been changed--the issue still falls near the bottom. Only 2.1 percent of these adults named changing the flag as the most urgent issue for the legislature to consider.

Thus it appears that Georgians, regardless of their attitudes toward the state flag, have a common agenda for legislative action. New jobs, more programs for children and families, and reforms in the health care system are at the top of the list. Nearly every issue ranks higher than changing the state flag.