In December 2000, an open-ended question asked Americans to name, off the top of their heads, the top priorities for Bush. It depends on how you ask the question. The American public generally gives higher grades to the state of education in their local communities than they do to the educational system across the country. Similarly, parents give higher grades to the education their children receive than they do to the educational system nationally. A Gallup survey conducted for the international educational association Phi Delta Kappa has shown for years that the grades Americans give to schools in their local communities are much higher than grades they give to schools nationally.
Opinion differs dramatically, however, on the quality of education one s own children receive.
In contrast to the education numbers for the country as a whole, parents satisfaction with their children s schooling has remained relatively stable during the past year. Students are often given the grades A, B, C, D, and FAIL to denote the quality of their work. Suppose the public schools themselves, in this community, were graded in the same way.