| Report Gauges Progress and Public Opinion on Goals for the State’s Future | |
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FRANKFORT, KY (April 3, 2000) — The Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center has released the third in its Visioning Kentucky’s Future series of reports, which provides a biennial assessment of the state’s progress on 26 long-term goals for the future. Measures and Milestones 2000 presents data, some of which has never been reported before, that gauge progress on each of the 26 long-term goals and, in most cases, compare Kentucky’s performance to that of the nation, the region, or surrounding states. New data on such topics as recycling, volunteer activity, personal safety, housing, Internet access, historic properties, and other topics were collected from participating state agencies and in general population surveys conducted by the University of Kentucky (UK) Survey Research Center in 1998 and 1999. The report also includes an analysis of the results of a 1999 public opinion survey. This survey, which was also conducted by the UK Survey Research Center, asked citizens to rank the goals for the Commonwealth by order of importance and to assess the state’s progress on each goal. Specifically, respondents to the survey were asked whether the state is making progress, standing still, or losing ground on each goal. As in 1998, an inverse correlation was found between the importance citizens assign to a goal and the progress they believe the state has made. The more important the goal, the less progress citizens tend to think the state has made; the less important the goal, the more progress they perceive. While education is the exception, health care is a case in point. Concerns about the cost and accessibility of health care have elevated its importance to citizens over the past two years. In 1998, the public rated accessible health care as the third most important goal. They now rank Goal 4—All Kentuckians will have access to affordable, high-quality, and comprehensive health care that stresses the importance of preventive care—as the most important goal to the state’s future, but they remain discouraged by what they see as a lack of progress on the goal. As in 1998, results of the 2000 survey show that, by a wide margin, the public sees the least evidence of progress toward realization of the goal of universal health care. On both the 1998 and the 2000 survey, this goal ranked last on the progress scale. Goal 7—Kentucky will achieve an education system of lifelong learning that exemplifies excellence—was a close second as the most important goal to the state’s future. In 1998, citizens ranked it as the most important goal. Unlike health care, however, a majority of citizens continue to believe that the state is making progress on this goal. Moreover, the percentage of respondents who saw progress increased between 1998 and 2000. Overall, the goal of an excellent system of lifelong learning also moved the farthest upward on the progress scale, jumping from 14th in 1998 to 8th in 2000. Citizens ranked Goal 1—Kentucky communities will be safe and caring places that enable all citizens to lead productive fulfilling lives—3rd overall in importance and 12th overall in terms of progress. In 1998, this goal was ranked 2nd overall in importance but few saw progress toward the goal. It then ranked 17th. Citizens reported seeing the most progress on efforts to protect the state’s environment. Goal 21—Kentucky will protect and enhance its environment through the responsible stewardship of its natural resources and the preservation of its scenic beauty—garnered the most points for progress in our analysis. In 1998, progress toward this environmental goal ranked sixth. Arts opportunities in the state and benefits from participation in an integrated global economy ranked second and third, respectively, in terms of progress, while waste reduction through recycling ranked fourth. The inverse correlation between assigned importance and perceived progress was again evident. While the public sees high rates of progress on opportunities to participate in and appreciate the arts, the goal was rated the least important among the 26 long-term goals. Similarly, citizens ranked environmental protection 18th in importance, recycling 21st, and beneficial participation in the global economy 24th.Some of the changes in public opinion between 1998 and 2000 are noteworthy. For example, overall assessments of progress dropped sharply for five goals: beneficial participation in the global economy, civic pride, a fair tax and regulatory structure, a state-of-the-art technology infrastructure, and partnerships to promote education. Goal 5—Kentucky communities will have high levels of trust and civic pride realized from broad citizen participation in their continuous development—fell the farthest in terms of progress, dropping from 10th in 1998 to 19th in the 2000 assessment. Launched in 1994, the Visioning Kentucky’s Future project sought broad citizen input into the development of a vision for the future of the state. A vision statement was shaped based upon findings from 15 public forums held around the state and numerous mailings that sought public comment on various drafts. From the vision statement, the Center’s Board of Directors developed a series of goals that were subject to review by agencies throughout state government. Measures or benchmarks used to assess progress were subjected to similar levels of public scrutiny and evaluation in mailings and in discussions at the Center’s 1995 conference. The 2000 public opinion survey was conducted by the UK Survey Research Center in the summer of 1999. Surveys were mailed in June 1999, and the survey was closed September 1, 1999. A total of 566 eligible responses were received. The values of overall rankings of goals were generated by assigning numerical values to the responses given. For each goal that citizens said the state is “making progress,” a +1 was assigned; for those goals that citizens said the state is “losing ground,” a value of -1 was assigned. No value was assigned to “standing still” responses. To evaluate overall importance, the goals that citizens ranked as most important were assigned a value of 3 points while the second- and third-ranked goals were assigned values of 2 points and 1 point, respectively. Citizens may obtain a free copy of the report from the Kentucky Long-Tern Policy Research Center. To request a copy, contact the Center by mail at 111 St. James Court, Frankfort, KY 40601; by phone at 502-564-2851 or 800-853-2851; by fax at 502-564-1412 or 800-383-1412; or by e-mail at ltprc@lrc.state.ky.us. |
