2019 Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) 51
st Annual
Poll: implications for education policy in Ohio—first in a series
Grades given to public schools by the public
Most adult Americans have attended public schools. No doubt their experience in the public system and the experience of their children greatly influence the grade they give public schools.
Subsequent to the release of the flawed Nation at Risk report in 1983, many government officials have portrayed public education as a failing institution. Those politicians have spurred the creation of tax-supported, privately-operated education alternatives.
It would seem the public perception of public education would have soured given the way public schools have been attacked and the tax-supported options that have been made available. However, the grades the public have given public schools the past half century have changed very little.
In 1981, 20% graded the nation’s schools A or B. In 2019, 19% gave public schools an A or B. In 1974, 48% graded their community’s schools (not charters) A or B. In 2019, 44% gave their community’s schools A or B. In 1986, 71% of parents gave their child’s schools an A or B. In 2019, 76% gave their child’s school an A or B.
The type of district grades given to schools varied by type of district (urban, suburban, rural), race, income, etc.
Those closest to the public schools gave them the highest grade. People generally give their own schools much higher marks than the nation’s schools in general.
The remarkable take away is that in spite of 30 years of public school bashing, the perception of the American people has changed very little.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
American Public Schools and Public School Teachers ARE one of America’s GEMS, like our National Parks. That is why there are those who want to destroy our Public Schools and our Public School Teachers as well as National Parks.
What kind of people do this? Answer: Ameri-DUH’s rich and those who are unaware and have personal agendas … $$$$$$ and control over this country.
Sheez … America has gone backwards because of the DEFORMERS of parties and the RICH who fund them. So sick.
Our public schools are part of the public trust. Parents are generally pleased with their public schools, although many believe that other public districts are not as effective as their own district.
Now that Corcoran has been appointed to lead education in Florida, there will be an even greater attempt to privatize schools. Across the state various “Yes” groups are running a well funded campaign against elected superintendents in the fifteen or so counties that still elect superintendents. The goal is to get voters to vote for an appointed superintendent that will be easier to control as Corcoran seeks to take over struggling schools.https://www.tampabay.com/education/getting-tough-floridas-education-chief-richard-corcoran-tells-school-districts-to-fall-in-line-20190813/?fbclid=IwAR1LT1hLs6izRnh9zbxFF7TByG326e6KVDjZjJiMaSOyDmhXgNXVetu13XE
The annual (for 51 years) Gallup/PDK Survey shows the same results. A strong majority of Americans think highly of the public schools their children attend while at the same time think that all the problems they keep hearing about must be happening in all the other public schools across the country thanks to the results of lying, misleading, manipulating war-like propaganda paid for by extremist billionaires since the President Teflon Ray-gun era early in the 1980s.
Here is the latest from the 2019 PDK poll.
“Frustrated by poor pay and underfunded schools, half of public school teachers nationally have seriously considered leaving the profession in the past few years — and majorities in the 2019 PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools say that given the opportunity, they’d vote to strike.
Were it to happen, large majorities of parents and the general public say they’d lend support.
In other results, Americans continue to express their concern about the lack of financial support for the public schools, naming this as the biggest problem facing their local schools for the 18th consecutive year.
Most parents and teachers also want schools to require students to study civics and say public schools should offer Bible studies classes as electives. They’d like to see more use of mediation to deal with misbehaving students and less use of detention and suspension.
Now in its 51st year, the PDK poll includes a random national sample of public school teachers for the first time since 2000, adding their voices to those of parents and the general public on crucial issues in public education. Results paint a portrait of broad teacher discontent.” …
“• Parents and the public overall stand with them; 74% of parents and 71% of all adults say they would support a strike by teachers in their community for higher pay. Even more — 83% of parents and 79% of all adults — say they’d support teachers striking for a greater voice in academic policies. Similarly, high percentages of teachers say they would support teachers in their own communities if they went on strike for any of these reasons.”
https://pdkpoll.org/results
The next link leads to the answer for “How would you grade the public schools?”
“The PDK poll continues its long-standing tradition of asking the public to grade the public schools nationally and locally. Customary dichotomies emerge: Just 19% of Americans give the nation’s schools an A or B grade, while many more give an A or B to their local schools — 44% (still less than half and down from a high of 53% six years ago).
Among K-12 parents, more (60%) rate their community’s schools positively, and 76% give their own child’s school an A or B grade, up a slight 6 percentage points from last year”
[NOTE: Ah, a 6-percent increase is not slight in a country with the 3rd largest population in the world. I think using the word slight this way in this report is deliberate bias designed to mislead).
https://pdkpoll.org/results/how-would-you-grade-the-schools
When it comes to the 19% A or B grade for the nation’s schools, how can anyone rank something they have no personal connection with? The answer is because that’s the perception they have from the negative media and propaganda that hammers the public schools on a daily basis thanks to a small number of billionaires like Bill Gates, the WalMart Walton family, Charles Koch (now that David Koch is dead, thank God), et al.
However, the only grade that should really count is the 76% A or B grade parents give to their own child’s schools.
There is a huge difference between 19% (influenced by endless propaganda filled with lies and cherry-picked misinformation) vs 76% (based on the first-hand experience of parents across the entire country).
Not sure why my comment was not let through. All I said was that the opinion of the parents about their children’s schools is not the same as actual quality of teaching in these schools.
BA, your contempt for American teachers and public schools comes through in almost all of your comments.
How did you get to be so much better than everyone else?
BA, You are wrong!
Lloyd, are you saying than opinions are as good as facts?
BA, I think your opinion about the quality of public school teachers is Trumpish swamp water or in his own words, “FAKE” news.
Lloyd, you seem to be a teacher and a writer, so presumably you should understand the meaning of words. Let me ask again: do you think that an opinion is the same as a fact? (I am using an indefinite article here, if you missed it).
Typical snotty, condescending comment.
I may block you because you are so snide.
BA, I decline to step into your question asking traps?
BA despises American schools and teachers.
I think BA is a troll and/or is paid to be a troll.
I don’t mean to be picky, but is there any way that Bill’s very valuable & appreciated information be posted w/o this school bus & all these extraneous lines (much the same as it nauseates me to read my iPhone in the car {whilst a passenger–definitely NOT as a driver!}–so, I have stopped doing it, & I would hate to have to stop reading Bill’s always worthwhile & important writings).
I’m so sorry, but I have sensory issues having to roll through the images &,especially, the numerous lines. Many thanks!
I don’t know where this statistics comes from. My local school is barely ok for an American school, and is definitely below any decent European school. And yes, I know about European schools.
The statistic comes from every Phi Delta Kappa opinion poll for the past 20 or 30 years.