– Lack of Parental Involvement and Violence Seen as Major Problems for Public Schools –
|– Logical Thinking and Preparation for Work or College Should Be Major Goals –

by Humphrey Taylor, Jonathan W. Siegel, and Michelle G. Murphy

Character education is not for Republicans alone. While George W. Bush has made it a centerpiece of his campaign, the most recent Harris Interactive Election 2000 poll shows that 47% of all adults support funding for character and values education in public schools; surprisingly Democrats favor the proposal to a greater extent than Republicans (56% to 40%.) Perhaps Republican support is tempered by the conflicting goals of supporting character education but not giving the Federal government too much say in shaping education policy.

Another surprising result is the support, regardless of party, for allowing students whose schools do not meet safety standards the option of attending a safer public or private school in their community; 63% of Republicans, 62% of Democrats and 58% of Independents support this proposal. Other highly favored proposals to improve education include establishing national standards for education and testing for students (84%), a national skills test for new teachers (75%), and a national system for reporting on school safety (60%).

Regarding the problems faced by public schools, lack of parental involvement (79%) and violence in schools (78%) are seen as the major problems. While major initiatives have been put in place to encourage parents to take part in their children’s education and to create drug- and violence-free zones for schools, the survey results indicate that most people do not think these problems have been fully resolved (See Table 2). Surprisingly, only 34% believe that a lack of computers is a major problem for public schools.

When it comes to goals, teaching students to think logically and clearly (92%) and providing students with the skills they need to succeed at work or college (88% and 83%, respectively) are seen as the most important goals for public schools. Teaching students about their responsibilities as citizens is also seen as a major goal.

These are the key findings about education from the latest Harris Interactive Election 2000 survey of 12,169 adults conducted on the Internet between November 12^th and November 19^th.

EDUCATION PROPOSALS

Base: All Respondents

"Below are some proposals that have been made regarding what the Federal government could do to improve education. After you read each proposal, please indicate whether your favor or oppose it."

% Favor

PROBLEMS WITH PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Base: All Respondents

"Listed below are some concerns that people sometimes have about public schools. For each please indicate how much of a problem you think it is for public schools today."

MAJOR GOALS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Base: All Respondents

"When you think about public schools, how important a goal do you think each of the following should be?"

This Harris Interactive Election 2000 study was conducted between November 12^th and November 19^th with a national sample of 12,169 respondents from the Harris Interactive Inc. panel of Internet users. Data were weighted by age, sex, education, income, race/ethnicity, and region as well as propensity to be online, a composite of several factors, in order to generalize the results to the national population.

In theory, with a sample of this size and after weighting the data, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus 2 percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population of the United States had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include question wording and question order, non-response, and screening (e.g., for likely voters). It is difficult or impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.