Parents approve of local schools, have negative perception of public education as a whole

Despite local and national lawmakers being concerned about where primary education is heading, parents today feel their local schools are doing quite well in educating their children compared to parents of the past, according to a new Phi Delta Kappa Gallup Poll, released this week.

Nearly seven out of 10 parents gave their local teachers an A or B grade on performance, the highest approval in the last 27 years. And an even higher number, 79 percent, gave their oldest child's school as a whole an A or B rating.

"In an environment where a lot of my members feel under attack, I think they will take great heart that the public really does believe they know what they're doing and care about kids," Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Education Association, told The Christian Science Monitor.

At the same time though, parents do have a more negative opinion of schools nationwide than they have in the past. Just 17 percent of parents gave public schools nationally an A or B rating.

This might have to do with hearing more negative stories in the news than positive ones about teachers, suggests the survey group. According to the survey, nearly seven out of 10 parents say they hear more bad stories about teachers than good ones in the media. Another reason may be that parents know more about their local schools and have local pride and don't want to give a negative perception of their community.

But Mike Petrilli from an education think tank in Washington, D.C., told the USA TODAY this week that "there's evidence that U.S. public schools are improving."

And although the number of college students pursuing a teaching degree has decreased over the last 10 years, according to an article in the Deseret News earlier this year, Phi Delta Kappa found that more than three-fourths of parents think high-achieving high school students should be recruited to become teachers and 74 percent said they would encourage bright students who want to be teachers to pursue the occupation. Survey respondents were split in whether the most important thing for the nation's future was to recruit high school and college students with skills in science and math to become scientists or become science or math teachers.

Highlights of the report:

About half of respondents believe unions are hurting education

Respondents would rather have larger classes with more effective teachers than smaller classes with less effective teachers

Many people said they like charter schools but are unconvinced that vouchers are a good idea

The biggest problem facing higher education, respondents believe, is the lack of funding

Most think e-readers are a better idea for older students than younger ones

EMAIL: slenz@desnews.com