Despite widespread dissatisfaction with U.S. public schools, partisan differences on a fix abound
Palo Alto, Calif., October 2, 2009:
Public schools in the United States are in bad shape, according to most Americans in the latest Economist/YouGov Poll, but things look somewhat better when the schools they evaluate are closer to home.
Asked if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the quality of public schools in the country, Americans overwhelmingly express dissatisfaction. Just 31% say they are satisfied, 69% are not. And nearly a third say they are VERY dissatisfied. But asked the same question about schools in their neighborhood, the assessment gets somewhat turned around. 52% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of the public schools in their neighborhoods, and 47% are dissatisfied.
Education – at least when it comes to these overall assessments of the schools – is not a partisan or regional issue. Democrats and Republicans both are dissatisfied with school quality nationally. But they are both satisfied with their local schools.
Americans who have children enrolled in the public schools are particularly content with the quality of those local schools. 70% of them are satisfied with the quality of schools in their neighborhoods. But parents see problems overall: by a margin of 54% to 45% parents of public school children are dissatisfied with the nation’s public schools.
There is agreement on which schools are the worst: 67% of all Americans say high schools do the worst job of educating students. Colleges beat out grade schools 49% to 42% when it comes to which level does the best job.
66% of Americans agree that private schools do a better job than the public schools do of educating children. Most of those who think they are better say that’s because they are run more efficiently. Americans don’t begrudge those who are wealthy enough to send their children to those schools. 59% say it is fair that wealthy parents can afford to bypass public education and send their children to private schools.
When it comes to supporting other parents who might want to send their children to private schools, however, many Americans want to set limits. Fewer than half support using tax money to give vouchers to low-income parents who might want to send their children to private or parochial schools, 45% would; 34% would not. However, they are more generous with tax dollars when it comes to providing vouchers for children with special needs. By a margin of 53% to 24%, Americans support that.
Americans generally support innovations in education and new ways of teaching children. 44% would like more charter schools, public schools that are freed from some of the rules government most public schools. And by more than two to one (56% to 24%), the public supports home schooling, letting parents educate their children at home. Public school parents support home schooling by nearly three to one.
SPREADING BLAME AND FIXING SCHOOLS
When it gets down to specifics - like what’s wrong with the schools, or how to fix what’s wrong with the schools, Republicans and Democrats sometimes differ. Overall, Americans see many people to blame for what’s wrong with American public schools. Politicians rank first, picked by 32%. They are followed by parents (20%), school administrators (13%) and teachers’ unions (12%). Only 7% put the greatest share of blame on teachers, while 5% blame the students most.
For Democrats, politicians are most responsible, followed by parents and school administrators. Few choose teachers’ unions. But while Republicans agree that politicians are the most to blame, for them the teachers’ unions are more responsible for the problems in public schools than parents are.
Neither party blames the individual teachers for the problems in the public schools. In fact, 55% of Americans believe teachers are paid too little. And fewer than half, 48%, would tie any increase in teacher salaries to their students’ performance as measured by standardized tests.
Americans aren’t sold on “No Child Left Behind,” the Bush Administration education program that ties school funding to student scores on standardized tests. 18% say that program has helped schools, but 41% say it has hurt.
In fact, given a list of eight items, and asked whether each gets too much, too little, or the right amount of emphasis in public schools today, 51% say “standardized tests” get too much emphasis. The only other item higher percentages think is getting “too much emphasis” was sports. 57% say sports gets too much emphasis.
Substantial majorities support more emphasis on discipline, on reading, and on math and science. 56% want more emphasis on vocational education. And 52% want more emphasis on the arts.
Paying for education is always a problem. Only 32% would be willing to pay more in taxes to increase funding for public education, something probably necessary to raise teachers’ salaries – and to put more emphasis on the things Americans want to see more of in the schools.
There is a clear consensus on who does education better and why. 53% of Americans say Japan spends more per pupil that the United States does. And 73% say math test scores are better there than they are in the U.S.. Germany runs second, followed by France the United Kingdom and Canada. 62% think Mexico spends less per pupil, and 46% say test scores there are lower than in the U.S..
FAITH AND SCIENCE
Majorities support what some might think of as conflicting values in education. By 70% to 19%, Americans in the Economist/YouGov poll favor allowing voluntary prayer in the public schools. And by about two to one, 51% to 26%, they support teaching evolution as part of the school curriculum.
There are some doubters. Just 46% of self-described liberals support voluntary prayers in schools. And only a third of Republicans and conservatives support teaching evolution.
Interested in more details about the poll? We have a topline summary and complete tabs available now.
METHODOLOGY
These results are from a weekly YouGov PollingPoint public opinion tracking poll conducted for publication in The Economist. The poll surveyed 1,000 respondents and was fielded from September 27-29, 2009. Results from interviews conducted online by members of the PollingPoint panel are representative of the U.S. adult population. The margin of error for this poll is +/- 4.7%.
