Recently I asked my 14-year-old son to identify the biggest problem at the public school he attends in Wake County.
He didn’t hesitate to answer.
“People who pay with cash or check in the lunch line,” he said. He explained that it takes longer for the cashier to process the transaction when students use cash or a check, rather than the automated system, to pay for their meal. Apparently, nothing irks him more than retail transactions that delay the gratification of consuming a lukewarm and rarely satisfying school cafeteria lunch.
Unlike fussy teenagers, adults tend to focus on the big picture. Starting in 1969, education organization Phi Delta Kappa has asked a random national sample of adults to identify the biggest problem facing the public schools in their community. In 2019, a plurality of respondents, a mere 25%, said “lack of funding” was the biggest problem, and 36% of teachers agreed. Funding concerns have topped the list for 18 straight years.
It’s important to note that few adults or teachers said that the top problems facing public schools were school choice, school violence, non-English speaking students, or racial segregation and discrimination. That’s not to say respondents dismiss these issues or discount their importance to public school reform efforts. Instead, it’s a reminder the problems that often get the most attention in the media are not paramount in the minds of adults. For modern Americans, money is.
Before “lack of funding” began its run in 2002, respondents offered a variety of answers to the Phi Delta Kappa poll question. Until the mid-1980s, “lack of discipline” was the most popular answer. Social and political conflict, combined with changes to instructional and disciplinary practices, led to the perception that America’s public schools lacked order. Today, only 6% of adults polled believed that it was the biggest problem facing public schools. Unsurprisingly, 13% of teachers cited student behavior as their top concern.
Between 1986 and 1992, “use of drugs” was the primary concern of those polled, undoubtedly fueled by First Lady Nancy Reagan’s ubiquitous “Just Say No” campaign and media reports of the Latin–American drug trade. With the prevalence of e-cigarette use in schools, one might suspect that more than 3% of 2019 respondents would identify drug use as the most critical problem. After all, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 3.6 million middle and high school students used e-cigarettes in 2018, a sharp increase from the year before.
Between 1993 and 2001, responses varied from year to year. I can only assume the Clinton presidency took its toll on public opinion, among other things.
Why have concerns about funding dominated the poll question in recent years? Phi Delta Kappa points out about six of 10 adults believe there’s a strong relationship between resources and school quality. But that only partly explains why perceived lack of funding is such a concern. After all, the idea that resources are tied to quality is not embraced by all. North Carolinians are much less confident in the power of money to raise student achievement. Last year, the Civitas Institute found that 44 percent of likely voters in the state believed that student outcomes in public schools would improve if state government simply spends more money. The same percentage, 44%, disagreed.
While adults support increasing resources for public schools to propel improvement, Phi Delta Kappa finds they are not necessarily willing to pay higher taxes. Support for increasing revenue to public schools is strongest for cuts to existing government programs and the utilization of revenue from state lotteries, taxes on legal recreational marijuana, and taxes on sports gambling. That’s not the case in our state, where there is limited support among lawmakers for legalizing marijuana and sports gambling. Moreover, the High Point University Poll consistently reports a majority of North Carolinians are willing to pay more taxes to boost education spending, although it is important to note that neither the size of the tax increase nor alternative revenue sources are presented.
Public opinion on lunch line transactions, public school funding, and other critical matters is not a suitable guide to the creation of sound public policy, because polls often exclude descriptions of trade-offs, opportunity costs, and implementation challenges. Nevertheless, polls may be useful for understanding priorities and perceptions that inform the behavior of voters and elected officials. The tension between effective public policy and voter preferences is one reason legislative action often falls short of expectations.
Dr. Terry Stoops is vice president of Research and director of Education Studies at the John Locke Foundation.