A new Chicago Tribune poll shows 65 percent of registered city voters do not back Mayor Rahm Emanuel's "handling of the Chicago Public Schools." Twenty-six percent of the 800 survey respondents endorsed the mayor's efforts on public schools, while 10 percent did not have an opinion on the matter. 

APC Research Inc. conducted the interviews for the telephone poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The poll also asked voters whether they are behind Emanuel or the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) "in the debate over improving Chicago Public Schools." Of those surveyed, 62 percent picked the CTU's side, while 23 percent chose the mayor.

Also, only 18 percent of those polled agreed with the policy of "cutting funding to neighborhood public schools while increasing funding for charters." Seventy-two percent of survey respondents said they are against the policy.

Emanuel, meanwhile, said he believes the slow-moving economy is behind his low poll numbers. 

“There’s tremendous economic stress in people’s lives, which is why I’ve pushed for the minimum wage, which is why I’ve pushed for policies to make sure our small businesses have a fair chance and an equal chance with big companies,” Emanuel said Thursday.

“You have to have a set of policies in place — from pre-K to community colleges to playgrounds to parks to after-school activities — to give everybody a chance to not just look at the gains, but know that they have a future in those gains. We're not where we need to be. We’re not repeating the mistakes that got us into the problems. But we’re not at the pace or place we need to be where everybody’s feeling an opportunity that they have a chance at a middle-class job.”

Click through for the newspaper's analysis of the poll's findings.