What you think about federal activities in education

Friedman 2014 Education Survey

The 2014 version of The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice’s annual public survey is out, and I have been going through some of the findings over the past few days.

Today, we look at a really interesting education question – How well the public thinks the federal government is handling K to 12 education matters.

This graph summarizes the findings from the survey of American Adults.

Public's View of Federal Involvement in K-12 Education

Note that the figures don’t add to 100 percent because four percent of the respondents provided a “Don’t Know” sort of answer. That leaves 96 percent of those polled who had no problem summing up their opinion about what the feds are doing in K to 12 education, and the overwhelming opinion is clearly not terribly favorable.

The detailed breakout of the percentages that thought the federal government’s education activities were fair and poor was equal at 37 percent each. Scarcely more than one in five Americans think the federal involvement in education is on track. More than one in three think the federal government’s K to 12 education activities are being poorly conducted.

With the federal government taking all sorts of dubious, activist actions through such things as pushing Common Core State Standards through Race to the Top grants and the granting of waivers from No Child Left Behind, the public’s reaction is very interesting indeed.