Poll: Americans mostly unsatisfied with K-12 education

A Gallup poll released Monday found that most Americans are unsatisfied with the quality of K-12 education, though parents were mostly sat...

A Gallup poll released Monday found that most Americans are unsatisfied with the quality of K-12 education, though parents were mostly satisfied with their children's own education. File photo by wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock

By Sommer Brokaw, UPI

As a new school year begins, most Americans say they are not satisfied with the quality of the education their children are receiving.

Only 43 percent of Americans say they're satisfied, a Gallup Poll released Monday shows.

The percentage is close to a historical average of 45 percent, Gallup Poll analyst Megan Brenan said. The lowest point of satisfaction was in 2000 at 36 percent and the highest point in 2004 at 53 percent.

"The higher level that year (2004) was primarily driven by Republicans' positivity as President George W. Bush's 'No Child Left Behind' education reforms began to take hold," Brenan said.

"Partisans' satisfaction with the quality of the nation's K-12 education in some instances tracks with who occupies the White House," she added.

After President Donald Trump took office, Democrats' satisfaction with K-12 education decreased 2 percentage points, and Republicans' increased 11 points.

The Gallup poll has also noted a gap between parents personal satisfaction with their children's education and the quality of the U.S. education system overall.

In the latest poll, seven in 10 parents said that they were satisfied with the quality of their child's education, while only 48 percent said the same about the quality of K-12 education in the United States.

"Parents of children in kindergarten through 12th grade in the U.S. remain much more satisfied with the quality of their child's education than U.S. education overall," Brenan said. "This trend, which has endured for two decades, is further evidence of a common pattern in Gallup polling that finds more positivity about one's own situation than the same issue or entity on a larger national scale."

More than 1,000 adults were surveyed with a margin of error of 4 percentage points. For parents alone, 229 Americans with school-aged children were surveyed with a margin of error of 8 percentage points.