Mos U.S. Adults Want to Leave "No Child" Behind -- New National Poll

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

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MAJORITY WOULD LIKE "NO CHILD" LAW LEFT BEHIND
  Scripps Howard News Service --  May 30, 2007
by Thomas Hargrove and Guido H. Stempel III

Nearly two-thirds of American adults want Congress to re-write or 
outright abolish the landmark No Child Left Behind Act that mandates 
nationwide testing of elementary students to determine if public schools 
are performing adequately.

Opposition is especially high among people most familiar with the law, 
according to a survey of 1,010 adults conducted by Scripps Howard News 
Service and Ohio University.

Controversy about the law has grown in recent months as Congress begins 
the debate on whether to reauthorize the measure that President Bush has 
touted is one of the most important achievements of his administration.

"The No Child Left Behind Act has worked for America's children and I 
ask Congress to reauthorize this good law," Bush urged legislators 
during his last State of the Union address.

But dissent against reauthorization has developed within his own party. 
Fifty-two Republican House members and five GOP senators are calling for 
a repeal of the law in favor of a more flexible system of achievement 
standards to be negotiated between the Department of Education and 
individual states.

"This expensive and largely unsuccessful legislation has broadened the 
scope of the federal government's role in education," Rep. Tim Walberg, 
R-Mich., said while introducing his bill.

Participants in the poll were told that No Child Left Behind "requires 
states to test elementary students to determine if schools do a good job 
teaching. Critics say the law forces teachers to teach to a particular 
test. From everything you've heard, do you think the No Child Left 
Behind Act has been good for public schools or not good?"

Only about a third said they think the law has had a positive influence 
on public education while slightly less than half said it has had a 
negative impact and a fifth were undecided.

A few respondents volunteered different answers that were generally 
critical of the law.

"The schools should have more leeway," said the mother of two public 
school children from Lexington, S.C.

"It was a good theory, but the implementation has been faulty," remarked 
another mother with three children from Elmhurst, N.Y.

"No Child Left Behind created unfunded mandates which force teachers to 
teach to the test," complained a single woman from Tonopah, Nev.

"States should have more control over their education programs," said a 
mother from Houston, Texas.

Respondents in the poll were also asked: "Based upon everything you've 
heard, do you want Congress to renew the No Child Left Behind law, do 
you want Congress to make changes in the law or do you want Congress to 
cancel the No Child Left Behind law?"

Twenty-three percent said they want the law renewed in its current form, 
14 percent want it abolished and 49 percent want it amended. Fourteen 
percent were undecided. Taken together, 63 percent want the law 
abolished or amended.

About three-quarters of people who said they are "very familiar" with 
the law also say they want it altered or abolished, compared to less 
than half of people who say they are "not familiar" with the measure.

Well-educated people, especially college graduates and those who've 
attended post-graduate schooling, are especially likely to call for 
changes to the law. People who have public school children at home are 
somewhat more likely to want the law altered or abolished than are 
people who don't currently have children in school.

Although much of the criticism in Congress against the current form of 
the law is coming from Republicans, the poll found that Democrats in the 
general public were more likely to want changes in the law than were 
Republicans.

The survey was conducted by telephone from May 6-27 among 1,010 adult 
residents of the United States who were selected at random. The survey 
was conducted by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University 
under a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation.

The survey has a margin of error of about 3 percent, although the margin 
is somewhat higher when estimating support for the No Child Left Behind 
Act among different subgroups.

(Thomas Hargrove is a reporter for Scripps Howard News Service. Guido H. 
Stempel III is the director of the Scripps Survey Research Center.)

    http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/23421