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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 1999

News Release

American Public Wants Focus on Public Schools

Recent Poll Sheds Light on Priorities

Washington, D.C. -- The 31st Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll is powerful evidence that Americans support improving American public education over alternatives, such as private school tuition vouchers.

"For parents and others who care about the future, putting our energy and resources into making public schools the best they can be is clearly the way to go," said Bob Chase, president of the 2.4 million member National Education Association (NEA). "The schools are improving in significant ways, public confidence in their schools is starting to rise, and people clearly want those improvement efforts to continue."

In a nationwide poll, the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll found that 70 percent of Americans favor "improving and strengthening the existing public schools." Only 28 percent supported "providing vouchers for parents to use in selecting and paying for private and/or church-related schools."

Chase said the improvement agenda the Association supports at the national, state, and local levels also garners strong support from most Americans.

"Issues we determined to be priorities for the year -- improving teacher quality through mentor programs for new teachers, working to reduce class size, and making sure all our schools are safe and orderly are the very things most Americans see as most important," Chase averred.

The Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll found that the top four factors Americans found most important in choosing a public school were quality of the teaching staff (98%), maintenance of school discipline (89%), curriculum (89%), and size of classes (75%).

At its 1999 annual meeting in July, the NEA encouraged state and local affiliates to work with partners to develop formal induction programs for new teachers. Such programs have proven to slow the rate of turnover in the early, transitional years of teaching. In addition, NEA is working with public education advocates in Congress and the White House to expand resources to help school districts lower class sizes, especially in the early grades. "There are many interesting findings in this poll," Chase said. "It's heartening that teachers, parents, and the public agree on where we ought to concentrate our efforts -- public schools. And we agree on what the solutions are, as well. It should be clear to policy makers at all levels."

Chase said NEA will work with members, parents, policy makers, and others to keep the focus on improving teacher quality, making schools safer, reducing class sizes, and maintaining high standards for students, teachers, and schools.

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support personnel, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.