How to Improve the Public Schools

A number of questions in this year's poll probed opinion on ways of improving the public schools.

Ways Additional Education Funds Should Be Used

An open-ended question offered respondents an opportunity to suggest how additional money to improve education should be used. No clear formula emerged from this question; suggestions fell into 20 different categories. Educators will welcome the fact that the larger categories include hiring more teachers and raising teacher salaries. Strong support was also evident for improving the tools available to teachers: buying more teaching materials, adding computers, upgrading equipment, and buying more school supplies. Only responses mentioned by at least 5% of respondents are listed.

Lengthening Time Spent in School

Lengthening the time students spend in school is an issue on which the public's views have changed over the years. Only 37% favored extending the school year in the 1982 question that specified increasing the year from 180 to 210 days. By 1991, 55% favored this idea. The 1993 poll produced a small majority (52%) for simply extending the school day or school year, with no specific amount of time mentioned. In the current poll an attempt was made to determine whether the public felt differently about lengthening the school year or day for elementary school children as compared to students in high school. Findings reveal that the public supports lengthening the school year or day (60% in favor, 37% opposed) at the high school level but is evenly divided on this measure (49% in favor, 48% opposed) for elementary schools.

Nonwhites, blacks, and college graduates are more likely than other demographic groups to favor extending the school year or day at either level.

Access to Global Electronics

There are those who feel that greater use of technology is the answer to many of the problems facing the public schools. The public expresses strong support for providing schools with access to global electronic communications systems. Eighty percent of respondents in the current poll believe this access is either very important (49%) or somewhat important (31%). With minor differences, this conviction holds across the demographic spectrum.

The public is in good company on this question. A recent Public Agenda study found that teachers place computer skills alongside the three R's, hard work, citizenship, and history and geography as essentials in the public school curriculum. President Clinton has proposed spending $2 billion over the next five years on matching grants to help states pay for school technology. He would have "every classroom in the U.S. connected to the Internet by the year 2000."

Required Community Service

Passage of the National Community Service Act of 1990 recognized the potential of "service learning" as a means of helping students develop a commitment to the ideal of service to others. These polls revealed public support for the value of community service as early as 1979, when 87% of respondents approved the idea of optional community service for high school students. In 1989 the wording was changed to "required" rather than "optional," and community service still found strong support among all groups.

The current poll shows even stronger support for required service than did the 1989 poll. Women favor community service (76%) more than men (56%). Older and better-educated Americans and suburbanites also support the idea in somewhat greater numbers than the younger, the less well-educated, and urban dwellers.

Privatization of School Services

Poll respondents believe that school privatization is fine for their local schools, but only for ancillary services such as cafeteria operation, building/facilities maintenance, and transportation. This is not surprising, since these services have been supplied by private firms in many schools for decades with little public opposition. In this poll, 81% of respondents approved of school boards contracting out food service, 79% favored contracting out maintenance, and 75% favored contracting out transportation.

People's attitudes change, however, when they are asked to respond to the newest kid on the block, privatization of the entire public school operation. Only 34% favor this idea, while 59% oppose it. This represents a considerable opinion swing since 1994, when poll respondents were evenly divided (45% in favor, 47% opposed) in their support of "an idea now being tested in a few cities in which private, profit- making corporations contract to operate schools within certain jurisdictions."

It may be that public attitudes are in metamorphosis as private entities, such as universities and the National Urban League, are entering the business of running public schools and as the idea of "charter schools" is being tested in more than 20 states.

Retired General as School Superintendent?

Seattle has contracted with a retired U.S. Army major general and former manager of Atlanta's county government to serve as superintendent of schools. He has no college training and no prior experience working in schools. Given the media attention this move has attracted, it seemed worthwhile to see whether the public believes it is important for the superintendent of schools to be a trained and experienced educator.

Respondents were not equivocal in their response: 73% consider such qualifications very important; 14%, quite important; and only 12%, not very or not at all important. Among the groups less likely to assign importance to education-related training and experience are college graduates, high-income respondents, Republicans, and professional and businesspeople.

Encouraging Bright People to Become Teachers

Some students of education believe that one of the best ways to improve the public schools of the future would be to bring more bright and energetic people into the teaching profession. Since people choosing a career are affected by the attitudes of friends, family, peers, and important adult role models, respondents were asked how they would react if "the brightest person you know" said he or she would like to be a teacher. With few variations among demographic groups, 73% said they would encourage that person. However, 23% said that they would suggest he or she consider other fields before deciding. These responses are consistent with those in the 1993 poll, in which 67% of respondents said they would like to see a child of theirs take up teaching as a career.

Compulsory Attendance

In current debates about the public schools, some people express the opinion that compulsory attendance laws should be eliminated. Although a strong majority of the public (64%) opposes such a move, educators may be surprised to learn that 30% support it. This support is strongest among nonwhites (38%), blacks (38%), and those between 18 and 29 years of age (43%).