Americans are split on whether charter schools should meet the same educational standards as other public schools or set their own standards.
Forty-eight percent of the 1,221 adults polled in the annual Phi Delta Kappa poll of public attitudes about public schools said charters should meet the same standards as other public schools. Forty-six percent said charters should be able to set their own standards.
Phi Delta Kappa is a professional association of educators.
Younger Americans, ages 18-29, are 20 points more likely than seniors to support allowing charter schools to set their own standards, the poll results show. And Hispanics are 10 points less apt than whites to say that charter schools should meet the same standards as public ones.
According to the poll, performed by Langer Research Associates, negative perceptions of local and national public schools are related to greater support for charter school autonomy. Majorities of those giving their local public schools a C or lower favor allowing charter schools to set their own standards, while majorities of those giving them an A or B prefer that charter schools meet the same standards.
This was the question that was asked:
Q. Charter schools are public schools that are run without many of the state regulations placed on other public schools. Do you think it’s better for charter schools to meet the same educational standards as other public schools or to set their own educational standards?
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