Poll: Views on Schools Divided by Race, Income
As parents all over the country get ready to send their children off to school this fall, a new poll shows that the nation's views of the education system is divided by race and income.
Minority and low-income parents are seeing more serious problems with the schools their children attend — such as bullying, low parental involvement, low test scores, low expectations and out-of-date textbooks — than affluent or white parents, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Poll.
Associated Press reports:
Digging into these numbers reveals another wide gap based on race. Fifty-four percent of Hispanic parents and 50 percent of black parents think they have a great deal or a lot of influence over their child's education. Only 34 percent of white parents share this view.
When asking about school funding, artistic programs and technology, racial identities divided perceptions.
Sixty-one percent of black parents saw inequality in school funding as a problem, compared with 32 percent of white parents. Thirty-six percent of black parents saw insufficient opportunities for musical or artistic pursuits, but just 21 percent of white parents did. And 50 percent of Hispanic parents said a lack of computers and technology was a problem, while 34 percent of black parents and just 16 percent of white parents said the same.
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(Photo: REUTERS/Tim Shaffer/Microsoft/Handout)