Education Next 2008 Public Opinion Survey

  http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/26380034.html

 

I’m thinking a lot about politics right now, and wondering what the American public is going to do in November, so this article was fascinating to me. The survey looks at public opinion regarding a number of important issues in American education today. One of the things that impressed me was the detailed breakdown of responding groups. Surveyors looked at racial background of responders and even recorded teacher responses as a separate subgroup. Sometimes teachers can tend to disregard the opinions of the general public, but, just as in any industry, if we don’t evolve to meet the needs of the customer and maintain our relevancy and usefulness, we could be “left behind.” (Pun intended.)

 

The survey examined the following issues: general satisfaction with public schools, how that satisfaction level rates next to satisfaction with other public agencies, NCLB, national standards, online education, home schooling, charter schools, vouchers, tax credits for those whose children attend private schools, school integration, mainstreaming the disabled, and how the public views each of the two major political parties in terms of their ability to improve education.

1.        Satisfaction with public education: When asked about the nation’s schools on the whole, 54% of responders gave a grade of “C” and 26% gave a grade of “D” or “F.” Only 20% gave a grade of “A” or “B.” However, when asked about local schools, 40% said they would give them a grade of “A” or “B,” with 35% awarding a “C” grade. For comparison, satisfaction with the post office and police force was higher by 30% and 24% respectively, even among teachers polled!

2.       No Child Left Behind: Support is dropping. Only 50% now support renewing the act with minimal or no changes.

3.       National Standards: 69% of Americans feel there should be a national standard for all schools, with just one test across the country rather than individual states giving different tests.

4.       Online Education: 

a.       The first set of questions focused on whether there should be Federal funding for online education. The survey asked about coursework designed for four different categories of high school students: advanced, rural (isolated), home schooled, and dropouts. Interestingly, support varied widely. 68% favored paying for online learning for advanced classes and 64% for rural populations, but support dropped to 40% when it came to paying for online classes for dropouts, and only 26% in favor of paying for online courses for home schooled students.

b.      The survey also asked whether parents would support their own child taking online courses. 69% of respondents said that they would be willing.

5.       Regarding other alternative education issues, home schooling was shown to be on the rise. 64% of Americans polled now know someone who is home schooling a child. On average, 42% support the idea of charter schools, 40% are in favor of school vouchers, and 54% like the idea of tax credits for those with children in private schools.

6.       Engineered school integration: This was shown to be an unpopular measure, with 63% opposed to busing or otherwise externally forcing the integration of schools according to racial background.

7.       The survey also looked at mainstreaming of emotionally and behaviorally disabled students, and 72% of respondents are in favor of keeping those students in separate settings.

8.       Which party is viewed as more capable of improving education? 62% say the Democrats. However, this issue is not predicted to be as vital an issue for candidates as it was in the year 2000.

 Summary submitted by Jennifer Sinclair