Breaking Down the “2015 Schooling in America Survey”

With the close of another school year and a blossoming of expansive school choice programs this year comes curiosity about the progress of K–12 education in the United States.

Is it advancing? Is it going well? How might it improve?

Our recently released 2015 Schooling in America Survey aims to tap public opinion to answer those questions and more. For an at-a-glance summary of survey top lines, click through the helpful slide show below.

Report’s Key Findings

Some key points you will find in the slide show include the following:

• One out of six people people rank education as the No. 1 issue facing America.
• Americans give low ratings to the federal government’s performance in K–12 education
• Very few Americans know how much we spend per pupil on K–12 education.
• A significant number of public school parents give low grades to their public schools.
• Actual enrollment numbers do not reflect American’s school type preferences.
• About twice as many Americans support school vouchers than oppose them.
• Americans’ top two reasons for supporting vouchers are “access to schools having better academics” and “more freedom and flexibility for parents.”
• The top reason people say they oppose school vouchers is that they “divert funding away from public schools” (See the slide show above for our take on this data point.)
• A majority of Americans think education savings accounts should be universal.
• Most public school parents report their children spending 16 days or more in standardized testing.
• Common Core State Standards are a polarizing topic. Half of Americans support them and the other half oppose or did not know about them.

Schooling in America is an annual project, commissioned by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and conducted by Braun Research, Inc. (BRI). For more information on public opinions, methodology, and more, please download the full report on our website at edchoice.org/2015NationalSurvey.

To stay up-to-date on the latest Friedman Foundation research releases, follow us on Twitter at @edchoice.