Public Schools Receive an 'F' Among Parents and Community

An August Gallup poll reveals that more than half of Americans are dissatisfied with the public education system, with only 7 percent of parents of school-aged children believing that public schools provide an excellent education. Home schooling rated higher by the general public than public schools for quality, but private schools received the overall best ratings.
The poll reported that 78 percent of Americans said children in private schools received an excellent or good education. Parochial schools came next with a 69 percent rating, then came charter schools (60 percent), home schooling (46 percent) and public schools (37 percent).
Although 83 percent of parents polled said their oldest child attends public school, only 47 percent thought their child was receiving an excellent or good education. Among parents of K-12 students, the results were similar to the public at large, but they gave public schools a slightly higher rating than home schooling.
What political party an American is affiliated with made a difference in how they answered, with democrats rating public schools as higher in quality (46 percent) than republicans (33 percent). Republicans, in contrast, rated home schooling as a better choice (57 percent) than democrats (41 percent). However, all parties rated private, parochial, charter, and home schools as better than public schools in quality.
A question about how satisfied parents are in the quality of education their children receive is historically always higher than how they feel about education in America at large. This year, 44 percent were satisfied in the education system, but 75 percent thought their child’s schooling was satisfactory.
These findings have some surprising statistics, but one thing resurfaces in all of the questions: Americans are dissatisfied with the state of public schools.
Only 5 percent of Americans believe that public schools provide an excellent education, a staggering blow to the state of public schools as a whole. Although some of this may be due to misperception and the media highlighting how American students lag behind other countries, there is still something very wrong with this picture. Many students are forced to put their trust in a public education, but it seems the system is unquestionably failing them.
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