Gallup just polled the American public about which schools do the best job of educating students. The results show a clear win for school choice options.

This interesting table from the new Gallup Report makes an important case.

It is interesting that just about every school choice option listed, including charter schools, is favored by a majority of Americans.

Home schooling’s rather low rating comes as a surprise, with somewhat less than a majority saying they believe home schools provide an excellent or good education. Perhaps this is due to the fact that there really isn’t a lot of good comparison data about home school performance. Still, even home schooling is held in higher public regard than the regular public school system.

This poll exposes some clear image problems for public schools. Only five percent of the public think they provide an excellent education, while a majority of Americans, 54 percent, believes public schools provide only a fair to poor education.

Gallup has some interesting comments of their own concerning their poll such as this one:

“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.”

This poll certainly adds more insight into how rank and file Americans really feel about the performance of various school choice options. Kentucky’s policy makers would do well to keep this in mind as they oversee the introduction of charter schools in the Bluegrass State and continue to contemplate fostering more access to other school options, as well.