One superintendent might see the survey as a means to getting more money for a new school and so adjust his answers somewhat. Another might be so busy fixing all the actual problems that she couldn’t find the time to fill the survey out. And so on. Weighting takes care of some of the issues (rural vs. urban, for example), but it’s not enough to compensate for the self-selection bias.

When you survey all the districts, as the state legislature and governor can, then you know your data is applicable across the entire state. It appears that’s what’s happening now, partly as a result of this survey, and that’s a great thing.

This isn’t technically accurate. What is required is a representative sample, and randomness is a common way of assuring representativeness. That is, randomness is the means, not the ends.

So the argument becomes whether or not the sample was representative, not whether it was random, right?