Survey Says: Disconnects Abound in School Opinions and Knowledge

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Karl Streitel
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Recently, EdChoice published its 2024 iteration of its annual Schooling in America report that surveys thousands of American adults and school parents regarding dozens of school-related topics and preferences. Within this report are numerous interesting results but also consistent reminders of disconnects between reality and belief, between public- and private-school parents, and between people’s words and actions.

On the Wrong Track

Thankfully, over 64 percent of school parents believe that K-12 education is headed in the wrong direction, which is a significant 8% increase just in the last year and the largest percentage who have felt that way since 2014. Yet, 69 percent of public-school parents are satisfied or very satisfied with their child’s school experience. Such a contradiction may seem to reflect the notion that most parents have low opinions of other districts but not their own; however, consider that 70 percent of current school parents would choose an option besides their local government schools while 80 percent of students still attend their local government schools.

Such contradictions in a sane world, based on free choice, would likely cause people to reassess their decisions, but such is the status quo in a coercive system that touts itself as “free”; enshrines itself in law as the default option; and garners funding regardless of enrollment, satisfaction, or results. (For example, see Chicago.) One wonders what government-school enrollment and satisfaction might look like in a free-choice system in which tax funding for schools did not exist and in which parents had to opt their children into an educational option rather than being placed into one by virtue of geography.

To this point, when asked why they chose their child’s current school, parents of students in public schools indicated proximity to home or work, socialization, and simple arbitrary assignment as their top three reasons. In contrast, homeschooling parents chose safety, moral instruction, and individual attention as their primary reasons. Note the principal difference between these sets of reasons: one is much more deliberate and intentional than the other. This should come as no surprise because the government school system thrives on dependence and inertia that relegate parents’ educational decision-making to buying or renting a residence in a particular area.

The Price Is Right, Right?

A further disconnect, highlighted in the survey, is that between belief and reality, especially in terms of school funding. Before we delve into the data, though, consider your own knowledge with respect to this question: How much does your local government-school district spend per pupil?

Do you feel confident that you know or that you could at least guess within $1,000? If not, why is that information unknown to you? I ask these questions in order to point out that most people do not know, and I believe that is purposeful. Like any other government entity, school districts must disperse costs and consolidate benefits while dragooning people to believe that the benefits actually accrue to all and that whatever is being spent currently is insufficient.

Indeed, the data from this survey seem to bolster this point. The median parent respondent guessed that per-pupil spending in his or her state was roughly $5,000—which is actually almost $5,000 less than the lowest state average ($9,496 per student in 2022) and over $10,000 less than the US average. Over 80 percent of school parents underestimated spending, and over 66 percent of all respondents did so.

Such disparities between reality and beliefs also reinforce the conception that school spending is insufficient. Specifically, over 63 percent of respondents believed public school funding in their states was too low, although we are left unsatisfied with respect to these respondents’ answers to the follow-up questions “Too low for what?” and “What is the correct funding level, and how do you know?”

However, injecting data into the equation still revealed a remarkable belief that government schools need evermore funding. When the previous respondents were then presented with data on the average per-pupil spending in their states, 44 percent still believed that spending was too low. Certainly, the nearly 20 percent decrease in those who thought spending was too low after seeing actual data is somewhat heartening, but when nearly half of people still think more should be expropriated and thrown into the maw of government schools, the system is still fulfilling its ultimate goal to keep people generally ignorant of its very real costs and dubious benefits.

Conclusion

Survey results, although riddled with caveats, can be useful for revealing trends and contradictions, especially between beliefs and actions. As we see in the results above, for example, many people claim to want a different educational option than government schools for their children, yet they keep those children in those same government schools year after year. Such contradictions can spur additional questions that unveil in many cases government interference with people’s preferences and that may help people to realize those contradictions for themselves. In essence, such questions may provide a compelling combination of realization and discomfort that can serve as an impetus for one of the most important choices a parent can make for his or her child: removing the child from government schools.