The Charter Blog
31 Aug 2007
Rudy
on the need for competition in education.
BG
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The People Have Spoken...
And, they had a lot to say.
While some (here, here, and here) may take issue with the 39th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Towards the Public Schools, disagreeing with it’s phrasing of questions and general concerns about bias, one things is for sure - the poll is reliable. Allowing us, biased questions or not, to track public opinion changing over time (the questions are the same from one year to another, thus measuring the same public response/opinion).
While there is a lot of great information in the poll, a couple specific items are worth mentioning. First, 60% of total respondents favored charter schools. And, of the respondents with children currently in public schools, the percent of those in favor rose to 63%. Support for charter schools is also steadily rising, increasing from 42% in 2000 to 60% of the general public today - with noticeable decreases in the percentages of both respondents claiming they don’t have an opinion on the schools and those who previously opposed charter schools.
Second, as NCLB inches closer to reauthorization, the poll provided an interesting perspective on testing. When the public was asked “is there too much emphasis on achievement testing in the public schools in this community, not enough emphasis on testing, or about the right amount” 55% said about the right amount or not enough emphasis on testing.
Third, 51% of respondents felt that either the Federal or their State government should have the greatest influence in deciding what is taught in public schools. Only 49% voiced support for the local school board, down 9% from last year alone.
Fourth, despite NCLB being almost 6 years old, only 54% of respondents said they know a great deal or fair amount about the law. Granted, that is a large improvement over previous years, but still not very good.
BG
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