Americans Strongly Oppose Using Tax Money to Support Private Schools
Vouchers and private schools are not the solutions most Americans would
choose for the problems of public schools. This is one of the central
findings of the 28th annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's
Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, which appears in the September 1996
issue of the Phi Delta Kappan.
"No matter how the question is asked," say authors Stanley
Elam, Lowell Rose, and Alec Gallup, "people oppose using tax money
to support nonpublic schools."
Eight questions in this year's poll (six of them new) looked at issues
of public and private schooling in America. The public continues to reject
(by a 61% to 36% margin) the idea of allowing students and their parents
to choose a private school to attend at public expense. A smaller majority
(54%) oppose the idea of a voucher system that would allow parents to
choose a public, private, or church-related school, with the government
paying all or part of the tuition.
A solid majority of the public (69%) opposes replacing the public school
system with a system made up solely of private and church-based schools.
Even 57% of those parents who already have at least one child in a private
school oppose such an option. However, the public is not opposed to experimenting
with privatizing many administrative services of public schools. Large
majorities would favor efforts to contract with local businesses for food
services (81%), maintenance (79%), and transportation (75%). But only
34% favor seeking to contract out the entire operation of the school system
as has been tried in a few cities.
If cost were not a factor, 63% of public school parents would keep their
child in the public school system: 55% would send their child to the same
public school, while 8% would opt for a different public school.
As has been the case for more than a decade, the public awards higher
grades to schools in the local community (43% A or B) than to schools
in the nation as a whole (21% A or B), and the parents of public school
children award still higher grades to the school their oldest child attends
(66% A or B).
In other findings:
- The public believes that its state and local officials are committed
to improving public education. Teachers are the group viewed as most
dedicated, with 80% of the public rating teachers very or quite committed
to improving public education. The school board came in second with
73%; the superintendent third with 70%; the governor fourth with 65%;
and the state legislators fifth with 55%.
- By a majority of 44% to 27%, Americans perceive the Democratic Party
as more interested in improving public education than the Republican
Party.
- By a better than 2-to-1 margin (49% to 23%), Americans view President
Clinton as having done more than the Republican Congress to improve
education.
- 64% believe that dropout rates are worse today than they were 25 years
ago (the reverse is true); 69% believe that U.S. students do worse than
students in other developed countries in math (the results are far less
clear); 54% believe that U.S. students trail other developed nations
in reading (they are, in fact, near the top); and most people have little
idea how many students receive special education or how costly it is
to educate those who do.
NEA President Keith
Geiger reacts to poll
Posted August 27, 1996