Public Schools in Trouble

This article by Paul E. Peterson in The Wall Street Journal reports some of the results of the Education Next poll, done by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The news isn't good, the public's view of public schools is at the lowest level ever found in the poll's 28 year history. For example:

When asked how many ninth graders graduate from high school in four years, the public estimated that only 66% of students graduated on time—slightly less than the best available scholarly estimates.

These negative views have consequences:

In 1990, 70% of taxpayers favored spending "more on education," according to a University of Chicago poll. In the latest poll, only 46% favored a spending increase. That's a 15 percentage point drop from just one year ago when it was 61%.

When those surveyed are told how much is actually being spent in their own school district, only 38% say they support higher spending.

Peterson observes that the schools' poor performance has led to these gloomy evaluations.

High-school graduation rates are lower today than they were in 1970. The math and reading scores of 17-year-olds have been stagnant for four decades.