School Performance - Public Schools & Vouchers: All In Favor…

This chart shows the responses to Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll questions. (1) "[With tuition paid by the government] would you send your oldest child to the school he or she now attends, or to a different school?" (2) "Do you favor or oppose … private, profit-making corporations [contracting] to operate schools within certain jurisdictions?" (3) "Which one of these two plans would you prefer — improving and strengthening the existing public schools or providing vouchers for parents to use in selecting and paying for private and/or church-related schools?" (4) "Which approach do you think is preferable [to improve public education] — reforming the existing public school system or finding an alternative to the existing public school system?"²

With regard to questions (2), (3), and (4), asked of the general public, respondents showed considerable divergence in their opinions. African-Americans were more likely than whites to favor for-profit schools. The pollsters' conclusion? In general, "The results clearly affirm the public's belief that our national commitment to educating all our children through the public schools should be maintained." But on the question of choice:

As to question (1), which was asked only of public-school parents, respondents were split fairly evenly on the question of whether they would send their oldest child to a different school if tuition were paid by the government, with 46% saying yes and 51% saying they would keep their oldest child in his/her current school. In the pollsters' opinion: "Public school advocates can derive satisfaction or feel alarm from the response of public school parents to a question asking where they would send their oldest child if tuition were paid by the government."

Vouchers have been available in Milwaukee and Cleveland since the early 1990s and they have received extensive media coverage and high court challenges in those cities. Yet a 1999 Public Agenda study showed that 60% of parents polled in the two cities knew "very little" or "nothing" about vouchers. Results from an NSBA/Zogby International Poll conducted in 2001 suggested that "the more people know about how voucher programs operate, the less they like them." The pollsters found, for example, that many people withdrew support if it meant that public schools lose tax dollars.

Do poll results like these mean that parents do not fuel the demand for vouchers? If not, then who is behind the push? Some supporters include the George W. Bush administration; the Roman Catholic Church; and big-city mayors, who argue that if middle-class residents are to be lured back from the suburbs, the monopoly over urban schools must be broken. All of these groups urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of Cleveland's voucher program.³ Voucher opponents include the Bill Clinton administration, the major teachers' unions and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the NAACP, and the Anti-Defamation League.

Judging by test scores (see Chapter 7), it appears our schools do need improvement. We have tried charter schools and vouchers, with mixed results. Homeschooling is not a practical option for our 50+ million population of K-12 students. What will we try next?

Next we will look at the issue of safety in our schools. Are our schools failing to keep our children safe?

Source: Chart: Lowell C. Rose and Alec M. Gallup. "The 31^st Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll Of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools." Online. Available: http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan. April 23, 2002. NSBA/Zogby International Poll: "School Vouchers: What the Public Thinks and Why." Online. Available: http://www.nsba.org/novouchers/. April 23, 2002.