Americans Back Moves for School Reform, Poll Finds

Americans strongly endorse a wide range of proposals to reform the nation’s public schools, from establishing national curriculum standards to allowing students to attend the public school of their choice, according to results of a Gallup Poll released Tuesday.

The poll found that most Americans are committed to public education and feel good about their children’s public schools. About 7 in 10 respondents in the survey, conducted on behalf of the Phi Delta Kappa professional education fraternity, said they would prefer to see existing public schools reformed more than the development of alternatives to public schools.

Only 44% of respondents favored allowing students and parents to choose a private school to attend at public expense; 52% opposed it. There was a sharp racial divide on the question: 72% of blacks support attendance at private schools at government expense, compared to 45% of whites.

But other proposals received broad support, including putting a computer in every public classroom (81%), establishing national standards for measuring academic performance (77%), moving “troublemakers” into alternative schools (75%), allowing students to attend a public school of their choosing (73%), using standardized tests to measure student achievement (67%), establishing a national curriculum (66%), grouping students in classes according to ability level (66%) and providing health care in schools (61%).

“I think the poll tells us that they [the public] want everything,” said Lowell Rose, Phi Delta Kappa’s poll director.

In Edgartown, Mass., where President Clinton is vacationing, spokesman Barry Toiv said the White House was “very pleased” by the results of the Gallup survey. “The poll suggests that there is really a very strong consensus among the American people in support of high national standards for education and specifically for standardized national testing to measure students’ achievements,” said Toiv.

The poll surveyed 1,517 adults, the overwhelming majority of them--1,017--being parents of public school children. Its margin of error is three percentage points.

Times staff writer Art Pine contributed to this story from Edgartown, Mass.