Poll: Poor marks for public school

Parents who send their children to public schools overwhelmingly
believe their youngsters are not receiving a quality education, while
those whose kids are in private schools or home schools say the quality
is much better, according to a new poll.

In the

Portrait of America poll, 64 percent of parents with children in private schools rate the education their kids are receiving as excellent, while only 27 percent of public-school parents are making the same claim.

Also notable were home-schooling statistics: 76 percent of parents who home-school say their children receive an excellent education.

The poll figures are higher when expanded to parents who rate their child's school as good or excellent, Portrait of America analysts said Friday.

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The telephone survey, conducted over seven days from July 16-23, included interviews with 9,400 adults. The sample included 2,029 public-school parents, 382 private-school parents, and 88 home-school parents.

Analysts said because of its small sample, the survey of home-schooled children should be viewed with caution.

For the overall sample and the public-school parents sample, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence. For private-school parents, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus five percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence. The margin of sampling error for responses based solely upon home-school parents is plus or minus 11 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.

"Still, even a cautious look at the data says it is fair to conclude home-school parents are happier with the education their children are getting than public school parents," analysts concluded.

In the wake of plummeting test scores, controversial curricula and increasing incidents of violence in the nation's public schools, both private schooling and home schooling have seen a tremendous growth in popularity over the last few years. As

reported by WorldNetDaily recently, the first, second and third prizes in the prestigious

Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee all went to home-schooled children.

Economically, for parents and taxpayers alike, the new polling data becomes even more compelling.

"Whatever the reasons for the dilemma of public-education failure, they don't include inadequate funding," wrote Michael Farris, president of the Home School Legal Defense Foundation, in a March 5, 1997 Wall Street Journal editorial. "For each home-school child, the average schooling cost is $546 per year; the annual public-school per-pupil expenditure is $5,325. Both figures exclude the costs of the building in which each child is taught."

Cost is also a factor in deciding where parents send their children to school. Portrait of America analysts, in Friday's survey, said, "If a moderately priced private school were available ($300 per month tuition), 18 percent of public-school parents would send their children to that school. Twenty percent of home-school parents would do the same."

Private-school tuition, however, is expensive and cost-prohibitive to many lower-income Americans.

That fact, analysts said, appears to bolster support for education vouchers. In its poll, the research firm said 54 percent of all adults favor school vouchers, which includes 56 percent of public-school parents, 76 percent of private-school parents and 72 percent of home-school parents.

In his speech Thursday night accepting the Republican nomination for president, Gov. George W. Bush expressed support for school vouchers.

The poll also explores opinion on public school accountability if vouchers were used, as well as parental choice for schools, public school spending and selection of schools.

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