by AFT President Sandra Feldman
October 1999

Most Americans
want to improve
public education,
not trade it in
for a new system.

People who want to know where Americans stand on education issues look forward to the yearly Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll. They take its findings seriously because it is careful and nonpartisan--interested in probing the public's ideas about education rather than winning converts to a particular point of view. The most recent poll, which came out last month, shows that a big majority of the American public supports public education.(One author of the report said it affirms "our national commitment to educating all our children in the public schools." ) It also reveals that most Americans who support vouchers favor a very different kind of program from the one voucher advocates are pushing.

While close to 50 percent of Americans find some version of vouchers or tax credits acceptable, over 70 percent come out strongly in support of public education. When asked to choose the best way of improving education, nearly three-quarters said we should reform the public schools rather than go with a different system. The numbers were approximately the same when people were offered vouchers as the alternative. In short, Americans certainly have not given up on public education. They greatly prefer it to vouchers, and they consider improving the current public school system something that can and should be done.

Stumbling Blocks

What do Americans see as the impediments to improving public education? Respondents were asked to volunteer their own ideas, and the "obstacles" that top the list are "finances/funding," "parents/lack of parent involvement," and "government," with "finances" as number one. Despite what the pundits say, the public knows that schools need money to reach higher standards, and it is willing to foot the bill.

Furthermore--politicians take note--none of the major problems was laid at the door of the schools. Few people think that administrators, teachers, or teacher unions are the big culprits. The major impediments in their view are officials’ unwillingness to improve school funding and parents who aren't involved in supporting their children's education.

Accountability

Another finding should seriously concern voucher advocates, most of whom are opposed to making voucher schools publicly accountable. More than 75 percent of Americans--including those who support giving public dollars to private schools--say that private schools getting public funds should be open to the same public scrutiny and regulation as public schools.

People think private schools enjoying public funding should be more like public schools in another important way: They want these schools to be open to all students and thus to include the same broad range of social class, race, and academic ability that public schools do. Yet most voucher proposals insist on having "no strings attached." In fact, studies show that most private and religious schools would be unwilling to accept money on the terms the public thinks should be required of them. And understandably so. Many of these schools don't publish their budgets or salary schedules or reveal curriculum details or participate in statewide testing--and they like it that way. For religious schools, public scrutiny and accountability raise issues of religious freedom; the deep infusion of religion throughout their curriculum and lessons is essential to them, as is their freedom to require children to attend religious services. They don't want state interference in any of that. Yet, accountability to the broader public must come with public dollars. The public demands it, and it is right.

A recent study by the independent Center on Education Policy of the few countries that give payments to private and religious schools shows that the more public dollars schools get, the more they are regulated, until the differences between private and public schools are practically erased, with national curricula, national exams, and national teacher certification requirements applied to all schools, public and private.

Americans are smart. They value the education they received in public schools and while they want to see today’s schools improved, they firmly believe that public is the way to go. Furthermore, Americans are not interested in spending public money without public oversight.

If political leaders are also smart, they'll support the movement for higher standards, smaller classes, better discipline, ending social promotion, and repairing our aging buildings rather than push for vouchers. Why focus on what divides Americans--and doesn't work--when they can focus on what unites us and works!