Parents—that’s who the largest percent of Americans think can have an effect on improving the quality of schools. And whom do people look to the least to help with school improvement? The federal government.
The Marquette Law School Poll asked a national sample of 1,005 adults in June 2024 whether they thought the federal government, state governments, local school boards, or parents can improve school quality. Respondents could choose more than one answer.
Overall, majorities of those polled thought each of the levels of government and parents can do things to improve education. That does not mean that they thought such things are being done, but they had substantial confidence that the things are possible.
Five out of every six respondents said parents can do either a lot (57 percent of the sample) or some
(26 percent) to improve the quality of schools.
People expressed almost the same high level of expectations that local school boards and state governments can have impact on school quality. A total of 78 percent of respondents said that school boards can do things to improve school quality, with 47 percent saying “a lot” and 31 percent saying “some” with respect to how much this local level of government can do to drive improvements. For state government, 48 percent thought it can have a lot of constructive impact and 29 percent said it can have some impact.
As for the federal government, 30 percent thought that it can do a lot to improve school quality and
26 percent thought it could do some.
Fewer than 10 percent of those polled viewed parents, school boards, or state governments as unable to do anything at all to improve schools. The figure was 12 percent for the federal government.
How satisfied are people with the public schools in their own community? In this national sample, 12 percent said they were very satisfied, 37 percent were somewhat satisfied, 24 percent reported being somewhat dissatisfied, 20 percent were very dissatisfied, and 7 percent said they didn’t know.
The Marquette Law School Poll was rated no. 3 in the country earlier this year, out of more than 500 polls, by the 538 polling-analysis project, behind only the New York Times/Siena College and ABC News/Washington Post polls. While it is best known for its work with respect to elections, the Marquette Law School Poll surveys public opinion, both in Wisconsin specifically and also nationally, on a wide range of public policy and social issues.
The Marquette Law School Poll was launched in 2012, and all of its results and data can be found at law.marquette.edu/poll. It was the only poll in the country to which 538, in its 2024 ratings, assigned a 10—a perfect score—on transparency.
