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                    Poll: Nation Holds Diverse Opinions about Public Education Policy
                    posted by: Cindy Omlin | August 22, 2012, 11:35 PM   

                    According to the 2012 annual Phi Delta Kappa/ Gallup poll of the public's attitudes toward public schools, Americans have a number of conflicting viewpoints in their preferences for investing in schools, choice, and education reform policies.

                    The survey shows partisan divides among many hot button education issues, including public charter schools, choice, and the children of illegal immigrants. Eighty percent of Republicans are in favor of charter schools, while slight majorities (54%) of Democrats support charter schools. The public is split with regard to vouchers, with nearly half (44%) believing that we should allow students and parents to choose a school of their choice, up 10% from last year. Further, 65% of Democrats versus 21% of Republicans favor children of illegal immigrants receiving free education benefits.

                    Although Americans are almost evenly split in their support for requiring that teacher evaluations include how well students perform on standardized tests, with 52% in favor, the public is in agreement about increasing the selectivity of teacher preparation programs. In fact, at least three out of four Americans believe that entrance requirements into teacher preparation programs need to be at least as selective as those for engineering, business, pre-law, and pre-medicine.

                    "While Americans are divided on many issues regarding the direction of our education system, they stand united in agreement on some very important issues," said William Bushaw, executive director of PDK International and co-director of the PDK/Gallup poll. "Most important, it is reassuring to know that, despite the recognition that our schools need improvement, more than 70 percent of Americans do have trust and confidence in our public school teachers." Overall, authors agree that Americans are optimistic about improving our education system.

                    Other Key Findings:
                    • Balancing the federal budget is more important than improving the quality of education. Sixty percent of Americans believe balancing the federal budget is more important, even though they said funding is the biggest problem facing public schools.
                    • Schools should discipline children for bullying. Three out of four Americans believe that bullying prevention should be part of a school's curriculum, and 58% believe schools should investigate and discipline students when bullying occurs outside of school, including over the internet.
                    • Parents want more control over failing schools. Seventy percent of Americans favor giving parents whose children attend a failing school the option to mount a petition drive requesting that the teachers and principal be removed.
                    • Americans view their local schools more favorably than the nation's schools as a whole. Consistent with recent years, almost half of Americans give the schools in their community a letter grade of A or B, while almost 50 percent give a C to the nation's schools.

                    Click here to read the complete results of the poll.

                    What do you think about the findings?
                    Comment below.

                    Originally posted by Alix at AAE.

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