PDK Poll of the public’s attitudes toward the public schools

“Hyde was not established by a state or local government, and is not itself a public school”, reads the board’s majority opinion in the NY case.

Most public school parents (56%) say that new standards are changing what’s being taught in their child’s school, although one-third says there has been no change. One may assume that after a number of out-of-school suspensions and missed classes, a student would consider applying to another school, hence the high attrition rate. In contrast with the double selectivity of charter schools, traditional public schools are unselective, accepting any student who lives within the geographical district and making every effort to hold on to the student until completion of the program. “One has to really question whether the direction we’ve been going is consistent with what the public wants”.

Starr underscored that the finding regarding closing failing schools, the poll’s most lopsided result, again highlights the public’s discontent with education reform policies that have dominated the education space over the last decade-plus.

“They don’t charge tuition and they don’t have admissions requirements”, Ziebarth said, and they are accountable to public officials in several ways, including through state legislators responsible for the state laws that govern how charter schools are approved and allowed to operate.

Cunningham, who also worked for the Department of Education during Obama’s first term and for former Education Secretary Arne Duncan when Duncan was CEO of Chicago public schools, took issue with characterizing education reform as “corporate education reform”, and underscored that communication plays a big role in driving misperceptions.

For example, the poll showed that the majority of the public, 68 percent, would prefer schools increase access to career, technical and skills-based classes as opposed to AP, honors or other advanced courses. They are exempt from numerous rules and regulations that govern traditional public schools, for example; in some places, such as the District of Columbia, they are also exempt from open-records and open-meetings laws.

But there is also a second level of selectivity, which occurs as the student moves through the system. Even more telling is the percentage of students given out-of-school suspension.

Above, we mentioned that Education Next poll which asked a similar question about the grades the public would assign to local and national schools.

For the 15th consecutive year, Americans say lack of funding is the No. 1 problem confronting local schools.