30/08/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 30/08/2024 20:53
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Aug. 30, 2024
MILWAUKEE - As a new school year begins across the country, a Marquette University Law School Poll national survey found that Americans are inclined overall to be at least somewhat satisfied with the public schools in their communities, but almost half of Americans are somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with these public schools.
The nationwide poll this summer found that 12% of those surveyed were very satisfied with their community's public schools, while 37% were somewhat satisfied, totaling 49% on the satisfied side. But 24% were somewhat dissatisfied, and 20% were very dissatisfied, totaling 44% on the dissatisfied side. Seven percent said they didn't know.
The close-to-evenly-divided results indicate that public schools face challenges, something that can also be seen in local education controversies across the United States.
The Marquette Law School Poll was conducted June 21-24, 2024, interviewing 1,005 adults, with participants selected randomly nationwide and interviewed online. This is the first time the Marquette Law School Poll has asked about school satisfaction in a national poll. However, it has asked such questions 16 times over 12 years in Wisconsin polling, where dissatisfaction with public schools has increased significantly in recent years, as shown in a separate, Wisconsin-specific June 2024 survey, which was the subject of a Marquette Law School Poll release yesterday.
The national poll also asked about respondents' satisfaction with other schools in their communities.
The responses pointed to much more familiarity with public schools than with other school sectors. Table 1 shows satisfaction with the types of schools.
Satisfaction with public schools was higher among those who identified themselves as Democrats than among those who identified themselves as Republicans. Among Democrats, 63% were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their community's public schools, while 10% were very dissatisfied. Among Republicans, 42% were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied, while 25% were very dissatisfied. Table 2 shows satisfaction with public schools by party identification.
Asked who could help improve education, the nationwide results pointed to parents as the prime choice, with 57% saying parents could do a lot to improve education and 26% saying they could do some. Local school boards and state governments also could do a lot to improve education, those surveyed said. For school boards, 47% of respondents said that these local government entities could do a lot and 31% said they could do some. For state governments, 48% said they could do a lot and 29% said they could do some to improve education.
But expectations for the federal government were lower. Thirty percent said the federal government could do a lot to improve schools and 26% said the federal government could do some. While between 14% and 18% of those polled thought that parents, local school boards, and state governments could do only a little or nothing at all to improve education, a considerably higher number, 34%, thought this to be the case for the federal government. These results are shown in Table 3.
The national sample was asked to judge four major education initiatives.
Table 4 shows these policy evaluations.
The survey was conducted June 21-24, 2024, interviewing 1,005 adults nationwide, with a margin of error of +/-3.5 percentage points. Interviews were conducted using the SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus, a national probability sample with interviews conducted online. The detailed methodology statement, survey instrument, topline results, and crosstabs for this release are available on the Marquette Law Poll website.
Kevin is the associate director for university communication in the Office of University Relations. Contact Kevin at (414) 288-4745 or [email protected].
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