Dissatisfied with US Education, Satisfied with Own Schools

 Megan Brenan at Gallup:

Americans’ satisfaction with the quality of K-12 education in the U.S. has fallen six percentage points in the past year to match the record-low 36% reading on this measure, which Gallup has tracked for 24 years. In contrast, parents of K-12 students remain largely satisfied with the quality of the education their oldest child is receiving, as 76% say they are “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied, significantly higher than the 67% low on that measure from 2013.

Since 1999, when Gallup started asking these two questions every August, there has been a consistent, significant gap between parents' satisfaction with their child's education and Americans’ views of U.S. education in general, averaging 31 percentage points.

The latest readings, from an Aug. 1-23 poll, find that Americans’ overall satisfaction with the nation’s K-12 education quality is nine points below the 45% historical average for this metric. At the same time, parents’ satisfaction with the quality of their school-aged child’s education matches the historical average for the measure.

All told, 35% of parents of K-12 students are “completely satisfied” with their child’s education, 41% are “somewhat satisfied,” 12% are “somewhat dissatisfied” and 9% “completely dissatisfied.” Meanwhile, 8% of Americans are completely satisfied with K-12 education nationally, 28% are somewhat satisfied, 38% somewhat dissatisfied and 25% completely dissatisfied.

Parents’ more-positive views on education are reserved for their direct experience with their own children. They are only a bit more satisfied with education nationally (41%) than the public at large is (36%).