Private Schools First, Public Schools Last in K-12 Ratings

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As another school year begins, Americans believe private schools provide students with the best K-12 education of five different types of schools in the U.S. The 71% who rate the quality of private school education as excellent or good exceeds the ratings for parochial, charter, home and public schooling, in that order.

	Excellent	Good	Only fair	Poor	Excellent/Good
	%	%	%	%	%
Independent private schools	21	50	17	4	71
Parochial or church-related schools	21	42	21	9	63
Charter schools	14	41	23	9	55
Home schooling	14	32	31	15	46
Public schools	5	39	35	19	44
Gallup, Aug. 2-6, 2017

The 71% of Americans who rate private school education positively is only a bit higher than the 63% positive rating for parochial schools but far outpaces the percentages for charter schools (55%), home schooling (46%) and public schools (44%).

Both Party Groups Rate Private Schools Best

The views of parents with children in K-12 about the quality of the various educational options are largely similar to those of adults without school-aged children.

There are greater differences by party identification. Republicans are more positive than Democrats about parochial, charter and home schooling, and Democrats are more positive than Republicans about public schooling.

Still, both party groups rank private schooling as the most effective, with 76% of Republicans and 68% of Democrats saying it provides students with an excellent or good education. Parochial schools rank second for both. However, charter schools rank third among Republicans, followed by home schooling and then public schools. For Democrats, charter schools tie with public schools at 48%, while home schooling is rated worst at 38%.

	Republican/Lean Republican	Democrat/Lean Democratic	Difference
	%	%	pct. pts.
Independent private schools	76	68	8
Parochial or church-related schools	71	56	15
Charter schools	62	48	14
Home schooling	55	38	17
Public schools	39	48	9
Gallup, Aug. 2-6, 2017

Private School Image Slips Slightly, Public Up Slightly

This year's overall rank order is the same as what Gallup found in its only prior measurement, in August 2012. However, since then, the percentage of U.S. adults who consider public school education as excellent or good increased by seven percentage points, while positive perceptions of private school education fell by the same amount.

Positive ratings of parochial education are also down slightly, by six points, while the ratings for charter schools and home schooling are statistically unchanged.

	August 2012	August 2017	Change
	%	%	pct. pts.
Public schools	37	44	+7
Independent private schools	78	71	-7
Parochial or church-related schools	69	63	-6
Charter schools	60	55	-5
Home schooling	46	46	0
Gallup

Since 2012, public schools' reputation has improved mainly among Republicans, whose excellent/good reviews have risen nine points to 39%. Public schools have improved only slightly among Democrats. At the same time, parochial and private schools' ratings are either down or unchanged among both groups.

The parties diverge on charter schools. While the percentage of Republicans considering these types of schools as excellent or good has held steady at 62%, Democrats' reviews have fallen from 61% positive in 2012 to 48% today, perhaps as charter schooling is becoming more closely tied to Donald Trump's administration. His secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, is a longtime proponent of charter schools as a way to give parents alternatives to public schools.

	2012	2017	Change
	%	%	pct. pts.
Republican/Lean Republican
Independent private schools	83	76	-7
Parochial or church-related schools	76	71	-5
Charter schools	62	62	0
Home schooling	55	55	0
Public schools	30	39	+9
Democrat/Lean Democratic
Independent private schools	74	68	-6
Parochial or church-related schools	67	56	-11
Charter schools	61	48	-13
Home schooling	41	38	-3
Public schools	44	48	+4
Gallup

Implications

Americans as a whole believe private and parochial schools do a better job of educating students than public schools do, something that might be remedied with the right federal or state public school education policies. Another remedy may be expanding charter schools so that parents of children in failing public schools who can't afford private school have other options for their children.

DeVos recently told a charter schools conference, "No one has a monopoly on innovation. No one has a monopoly on creativity. No one has a monopoly on knowing how every child learns." That reflects a very different philosophy of education than the philosophy that government money should be focused on lifting public schools to their maximum potential.

The charter schools solution has also proved controversial. Recent studies have cast doubt on the value of charter schools in DeVos' home state of Michigan, but an earlier study by Brookings found urban charter schools across the country succeeding even as suburban ones have not. Regardless, Democrats have grown less positive about the quality of education provided by charter schools than they were five years ago, even as Republicans continue to stand by the sector.

Meanwhile, the states are transitioning away from policies established under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and toward the new standards of the Every Student Succeeds Act. ESSA standards are supposed to give states more flexibility in monitoring student and school performance.

It is clearly a time of transition in education policy, with multiple efforts underway. These efforts have the potential to improve public schools, and therefore Americans' confidence in them.

Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.