By Press Release from PDKpoll.org:
Americans’ ratings of their community’s public schools reached a new high dating back 48 years in this year’s PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, while fewer than ever expressed interest in having their child work as a public school teacher.
Results of the 54th annual PDK Poll tell a tale of conflicted views of public schools — local ratings are at nearly a five-decade high and a majority have trust and confidence in teachers, yet there’s wide recognition that the challenges they face make their jobs broadly undesirable.
Just 37% of respondents in the national, random-sample survey would want a child of theirs to become a public school teacher in their community. That’s fewer than have said so in a similar question asked 13 times in PDK polls since 1969. It compares with 46% in 2018, a high of 75% in 1969, and a long-term average of 60%.
The reasons for this reluctance are varied: Among the 62% who would not want their child to take up teaching, 29% cite poor pay and benefits; 26%, the difficulties, demands, and stress of the job; 23%, a lack of respect or being valued; and 21%, a variety of other shortcomings. Just among public school parents, slightly more, 38%, cite poor compensation.
This is the case even as 54% of all adults give an A or B grade to the public schools in their community, the highest percentage numerically in PDK polls since 1974, up 10 points since the question was last asked in 2019. The previous high was 53% in 2013; the long-term average, 44%.
The boost in confidence in public schools occurred among non-parents only; among K-12 public school parents, ratings of the local public schools are down 6 points from three years ago, although that’s not a statistically significant change given sample sizes. On another measure, public school parents are slightly less apt to give their own child’s school an A or B grade than in 2019, 68% vs. 75%.
As typically is the case, the nation’s schools as a whole are rated far less positively, with A’s and B’s from 23% of all adults and 30% of public school parents, both generally in line with previous results. While most people think their local schools are OK, their perception that schools elsewhere are subpar poisons the pot.
