The Education Gap: Vouchers and Urban Schools

Chapter 7: Satisfaction with Urban Schools

Most Americans appear to have serious reservations about the current state of public education. Eighty percent of all adults interviewed in a 2000 national Gallup poll gave public schools a grade of C or lower. Their assessments change, however, when they are asked about the schools in their community rather than the quality of public education nationwide. Fully 47 percent of those surveyed gave their local schools a grade of A or B. Among parents, approval ratings rose even further—an impressive 70 percent gave the school their oldest child attended an A or B.1 This pattern of assessment applies to more than schools. For instance, according to one study, 81 percent of Americans have a favorable view of their local police department, despite the fact that only 59 percent have confidence in the police as an “institution in American society.”2 Americans also are much more critical of Congress as a whole than they are of their own representatives .3 When people were asked about their impressions of government agencies in general, “71 percent . . . said that their [own] problems were taken care of, but only 30 percent think that government agencies [generally ] do well at taking care of problems.”4 On reflection, such findings are hardly surprising. Public discourse and the media, both of which tend to be more critical than complimentary, tend to inform most people’s judgments about national institutions. Candidates for Congress, for instance, have a strong incentive to attack the institution they hope to join.5 More generally, those engaged in national debates as well as those seeking higher office rarely praise government agencies—unless they 168 Satisfaction with Urban Schools 7 file 04 ch07-appD pp168-224.qxd 3/14/02 2:08 PM Page 168 themselves are responsible for an agency’s operations. Media pundits—“nattering nabobs of negativism,” as Vice President Spiro Agnew once called them—also help to paint a bleak picture of public institutions. News coverage generally emphasizes the interesting and important, which often seems synonymous with failure, scandal, and distress. As one textbook puts it, “a government program that works well is not news; one that is mismanaged, corrupt, or a failure is.”6 Personal experience, meanwhile, tends to inform citizens’ assessments of their local institutions—and, not coincidentally, their opinions of them appear more favorable. That is especially true for central-city public schools, a regular target of harsh criticism by outsiders. No less than 87 percent of households with children in central-city schools claimed to be “satisfied with the public elementary school.”7 Even in Washington, D.C., long criticized for the quality of its schools, 79 percent of parents claimed to be satisfied with their schools.8 Nationally, African Americans are only slightly less likely to be “very satisfied” with their assigned public schools than whites—45 percent versus 47 percent.9 Terry Moe, after scrutinizing parents’ satisfaction with public schools, concluded that “Americans are fairly satisfied with their local schools overall, and this satisfaction is surprisingly widespread across district contexts. . . . In fact, many people in disadvantaged districts appear to be reasonably satisfied with schools that most experts would characterize as seriously inadequate.”10 On the basis of such findings, some observers have concluded that school vouchers offer schooling options that most Americans simply do not want. Kevin Smith and Kenneth Meier argue that “using evidence taken from public-school parents to show they are massively dissatisfied with their public schools is impossible, because there is none.” They go on to say that “education quality” is not an issue because “the vast majority of public opinion polls indicate that this is a demand already met by public schools.”11 Smith and Meier’s contention appears all the more persuasive if one agrees, as many economists do, that consumer satisfaction is the best measure of a product’s quality.12 Generally speaking, to accurately determine the quality of an item—be it a suit, car, or lawn chair—one need only survey the people who use it. For just that reason, California’s Blue Cross in 2001 used patient satisfaction as a criterion for adjusting physicians’ pay rates. Still, most economists are reticent to draw conclusions about “satisfaction ” unless customers demonstrate a willingness to purchase the product. Consumers of public education may regard low-quality service as satisfactory simply because they do not pay for it directly. Actual behaviors, moreover, indicate strong dissatisfaction with central-city schools. Families that can satisfaction with urban schools 169...