If one looks back at the thirty years of polling, the most obvious conclusion is that the closer people are to the public schools the higher their regard for them. Then, beginning in 1985, parents were asked to grade the public school their oldest child was attending.
People assign low grades to the nation's schools.
These are the ones they do not know, and the ones on which their information comes from the media. They give good grades to the schools in their own community. And parents assign high grades to the schools their oldest child attends. The relationship between proximity and regard should make it clear that educators need to be diligent in their efforts to get more people into the public schools. Increasing the percentage of parents is, of course, beyond reach, but there is no reason why schools cannot reach out to many groups, bringing senior citizens in to use facilities and serve as tutors, conducting community forums, and making facilities available for community use.