What Does the Public Think?
Some Stats from the 2009 PDK/Gallup Poll on Public Education
TABLE 1
What do you think are the biggest problems that the public schools of
your community must deal with?
National Totals
’09 ’08 ’07
32 17 22
10 10 10
9 6 7
5 4 4
4 6 6
3 3 4
Lack of Funding
Lack of Discipline
Overcrowding
Drugs
Fighting
Lack of Standards
Lack of Good
Teachers 3
Public School Parents
’09 ’08 ’07
30 19 26
83 5
10 11 9
5 4 3
6 8 8
2 2 4
45 234
TABLE 2
Students are often given the grades A, B, C, D, and Fail to denote the
quality of their work. Suppose the public schools themselves in your
community were graded in the same way. What grade would you
give the public schools here — A, B, C, D, or Fail?
’09 ’08 ’07 ’06 ’05
51 46 45 49 48
10 12 9 13 12
41 34 36 36 36
32 30 34 32 29
11 11 14 9 9
355 5 5
382 5 9
TABLE 3
Using the A, B, C, D, and Fail scale again, what grade would you give
the school your oldest child attends?
’09 ’08 ’07 ’05
74 72 67 69
31 30 19 31
43 42 48 38
17 14 24 21
655 6
243 4
151 0
TABLE 4
How about the public schools in the nation as a whole? What grade
would you give the public schools, nationally — A, B, C, D, or Fail?
’09 ’08 ’07 ’06 ’05
19 22 16 21 24
132 2 2
18 19 14 19 22
55 44 57 51 46
19 13 18 14 13
655 3 4
1 16 4 11 13
A & B
A
B
C
D
Fail
Don’t Know
A & B
A
B
C
D
Fail
Don’t Know
’06
%
64
26
38
24
5
4
` 3
A & B
A
B
C
D
Fail
Don’t Know
Reprinted with permission from the 41st Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of
the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. Copyright 2009, Phi Delta
Kappa International, Inc. All rights reserved.
