October 20, 1999
Most favor improving
public schools, survey says
___By Larry Chesser
___Baptist Joint Committee
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--Most Americans want to improve education by reforming the existing public-school system, not by seeking alternatives to it, according to a new survey.
___Seventy-one percent of survey respondents favored reforming the existing system, while 27 percent said the nation should instead focus on an alternative system.
___Phi Delta Kappa, a professional education organization, and the Gallup Organization conducted the survey.
___The survey also asked respondents whether they preferred a plan to strengthen existing public schools or one that provided vouchers to pay tuition at private and church-related schools.
___Seventy percent opted for strengthening public schools, while 28 percent said they would prefer vouchers for private and church schools.
___"The results clearly affirm the public's belief that our national commitment to educating all our children through the public schools should be maintained," said Lowell Rose and Alec Gallup in a summary of the 31st annual PDK/Gallup Poll.
___As in past years, support for aid to private education varied depending on how the question was framed.
___In one question, opposition to "allowing students and parents to choose a private school to attend at public expense" grew from 50 percent in 1998 to 55 percent in 1999, while those favoring the proposal declined from 44 percent to 41 percent.
___But when asked a similar question--whether they favor or oppose allowing parents to send children to any public, private or church-related school with the government paying all or part of the tuition--51 percent favored the choice and 47 percent opposed it.
___Respondents were more supportive of a voucher system that paid part of tuition for a private or church-related school than for one that paid it all.
___They favored a partial-tuition voucher plan 52 percent to 45 percent but opposed a full-tuition voucher plan 48 percent to 47 percent.
___By a 77 percent to 21 percent margin, respondents said private and church-related schools that accept government tuition payments "should be accountable to the state in the way public schools are accountable."
___By an almost equal margin, 74 percent to 21 percent, respondents said non-public schools that receive public funding should be "required to accept students from a wider range of backgrounds and academic ability than is now generally the case."
___Asked what "one thing" they would change to improve public schools in their communities, 12 percent of respondents cited discipline, control and tighter rules. Ten percent called for more teachers and smaller class sizes, 7 percent called for better-qualified teachers and 5 percent cited funding. Cited by 4 percent of respondents were security and putting prayer and God back in schools.
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