INTRODUCTION TO THE POLL
THE 1998 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools includes a special focus on public funding for private and church-related schools. Along with the traditional trend questions in this area, new questions were asked regarding vouchers and tuition tax credits.
The public continues to oppose allowing students and parents to choose a private school to attend at public expense, with 44% in favor and 50% opposed. However, the public favors (51% to 45%) allowing parents to send their school-age children to any public, private, or church-related school if the government pays all or part of the tuition.
Two new questions were asked about vouchers, government-issued notes that parents can use to pay all or part of the tuition at a private or church-related school. Regarding a voucher that would pay all of the tuition, 48% of respondents are in favor, and 46% are opposed. When the question states that only part of the tuition would be paid, the proportion of respondents in favor rises to 52%, while the proportion who are opposed drops to 41%.
Two questions were asked regarding the obligations that should be assumed by private or church-related schools that accept government tuition payments. In response to the first question, 75% of respondents say that schools accepting such payments should be accountable to the state in the same way the public schools are accountable. In the second question, 70% say that nonpublic schools accepting public funds should be required to accept students from a wider range of backgrounds and academic ability than is now generally the case.
New questions were also asked about tuition tax credits, which would allow parents who send their children to private or church-related schools to recover all or part of the tuition paid. When the question mentions recovery of all tuition paid, 56% favor such credits, and 42% are opposed. When the question limits the credit to part of the tuition paid, 66% favor the credits, and 30% are opposed.
What do the results of this series of questions tell us? The public is deeply divided over the issue of funds going directly to private or church-related schools. Responses split almost evenly when the question implies that the public would pay all of the costs. The opposition seems to lessen when public schools are listed as a part of the choice option and when the funding provided pays only part of the cost. Tax credits for parents who send their children to private or church-related schools are supported by the public, but that support is greater if the credit covers only part of the tuition. Moreover, funding for private or church-related schools is conditioned on the willingness of those schools to be accountable in the same way the public schools are accountable.
The findings appear to guarantee that the issue of public funding for church-related schools will be a battleground for the foreseeable future. The public's willingness to consider aid to private and church-related schools in various forms will certainly encourage those who want to see such aid provided. By the same token, the public's seeming unwillingness to provide all of the tuition involved in such programs reinforces the belief of opponents of such aid that the "haves" will be the ones who can take advantage of such programs and that the "have-nots" will be the ones left behind. The battle would seem to be joined along those lines.
With this in mind, the 1998 poll repeated an earlier question in which public school parents were asked what they would do if given the option of sending their oldest child to any public, private, or church-related school, with the tuition paid by the government. Fifty-one percent of respondents indicate that they would choose their present public school. Another 6% would choose a different public school, bringing to 57% the number of families that would remain in the public school system. Thirty-nine percent would choose a private or church-related school. Clearly, this is an issue that could affect the future of the public schools.
The poll also sought to determine the confidence Americans have in the public schools as an institution and the priority the public places on improving these schools. When asked about the amount of confidence they have in the public schools, 42% of Americans say a great deal or quite a lot of confidence. Only the church or organized religion, with a combined rating of 57%, tops the public schools. Institutions in which the public expresses less confidence include local government (a combined 37%), state government (36%), big business (31%), national government (30%), the criminal justice system (29%), and organized labor (26%).
Regarding the priority the public places on improving the public schools, respondents were asked what the states should do with the surpluses they are accumulating as a result of the booming economy. Fifty percent of respondents say spend it on the public schools, 31% say use it to reduce taxes, 14% say build a "rainy day" fund, and 4% say spend it on other state services.
This being an election year, respondents were asked which of the two major political parties they feel is more interested in improving public education. Thirty-nine percent name the Democratic Party, and 28% name the Republican Party. The corresponding percentages in 1996 were 44% and 27%. In an interesting political twist, the breakdown of responses to the voucher question that stated that all tuition would be paid at a private or church-related school shows that 47% of Republicans favor such vouchers, and 48% oppose them. This statistical tie is surprising given the fact that the Republican Party is generally regarded as the party of vouchers. The picture becomes more interesting when one notes that Democrats, those from the party viewed as standing in opposition to vouchers, favor the same voucher plan by 51% to 43%. The party messages do not seem to be reaching the party faithful.
In another question, about programs with clear connections to political parties, the issues of providing funds to repair and replace older school buildings and providing funds to reduce class size in grades 1, 2, and 3 two programs associated with the Democratic Party drew support from 86% and 80% of respondents respectively. Giving states block grants from which to fund some of the current federal programs and allowing parents to set up tax-free savings accounts to be used to pay tuition and other expenses at private or church-related schools two programs associated with the Republican Party drew support from 73% and 68% respectively.
Other findings in the 1998 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll include the following.
-- Forty-six percent of the respondents give the schools in their own community a grade of A or B. This figure increases to 52% among public school parents and to 62% when public school parents are asked to grade the school their oldest child attends.
-- Americans are undecided as to whether children today get a better education than they received. Forty-one percent believe children today get a better education, 48% believe it is worse, and 8% believe there is no difference. Public school parents believe the education children get today is better by 49% to 43%.
-- Approximately half of the respondents (49%) believe that the public schools in the community are about the right size. However, a significant number (30%) believe they are too big. A majority (58%) would like a child of theirs to attend a high school with less than 1,000 students.
-- Almost two-thirds of respondents (62%) believe that schools in their communities are taking the necessary steps to promote understanding and tolerance among students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
-- Fifty percent of public school parents believe that school has caused their child to become an eager learner, 34% believe it has caused their child to tolerate learning as a necessary chore, and 15% believe it has caused their child to be turned off to learning.
-- The percentage of Americans who believe that public school parents should have more say in such aspects of school operation as selection and hiring of teachers and administrators, setting of their salaries, and selection of books for school libraries has increased significantly since the question was first asked in 1990.
-- There is significant public support (71%) for a voluntary national testing program, administered by the federal government, that would routinely test fourth- and eighth-grade students in order to measure the performance of the nation's public schools.
-- Support for amending the U.S. Constitution to permit prayers to be spoken in the public schools remains strong, with 67% of the respondents in favor.
-- The public is undecided regarding the way schools should deal with non-English-speaking students. Proposals calling for tutoring in English, providing instruction in the students' native language, and requiring students to learn English before receiving instruction in other subjects each draw support from roughly one respondent in three.
-- The public is undecided about the best way to finance schools: 21% believe the means should be by local property taxes; 33%, state taxes; and 37%, federal taxes.
-- Fifty percent of respondents believe that the quality of public schools is related to the amount of money spent on students in these schools.
-- Sixty-three percent of public school parents say they do not fear for the safety of their oldest child when he or she is at school. This figure is down from 69% in 1977. Similarly, 68% say they do not fear for the safety of their oldest child when he or she is outside at play in the neighborhood.
-- Almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents believe students with learning problems should be put in special classes.
-- Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed believe sex education should be included in high school instructional programs. The respondents expressed strong support for presenting virtually all topics, including AIDS, homosexuality, and teen pregnancy.
-- There is strong support for improving the nation's inner-city schools, with two-thirds of the public (66%) indicating a willingness to pay more taxes to provide the funds to do so.
-- Public opinion is divided about the impact that unions have had on the quality of public education: 37% believe they have made no difference; 27% believe they have helped it; 26% believe they have hurt it.
-- Almost three-fourths of respondents (73%) believe themselves to be either well informed or fairly well informed regarding local public schools.
(Editor's Note Due allowance should be made for findings based on relatively small samples, e.g., nonpublic school parents. The sample for this group this year consists of only 33 respondents and is, therefore, subject to a sampling error of plus or minus 17 percentage points.)
TOPICS:
Introduction to the Poll
Public Versus Nonpublic Schools
Grading the Schools
Effectiveness of Public Schools
Improving the Nation's Inner-City Schools
Politics and the Public Schools
Problems Facing the Public Schools
School Operation/Curriculum
Impact of Unions
The Public's Knowledge of Local Schools
Confidence in Institutions
Closing Comments
How to Order the Poll
Research Procedure
Sampling Tolerances
Design and Composition of the Sample
Conducting Your Own Poll
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