And for the 18th consecutive year, Americans said the lack of financial support is the biggest problem facing their local schools. These attitudes are some of the key findings in the 2019 PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, available at www.pdkpoll.org/results.

The wide-ranging poll finds that six in 10 parents and all adults, and 75 percent of teachers, say their community’s schools don’t have enough money. Twenty-five percent of all adults responded in an open-ended question that inadequate financial support is the biggest problem facing public schools today, a number which jumps to 36 percent among teachers.

The poll results provide further material in the groundswell of support for CSBA’s call for the Full and Fair Funding of California’s public schools, which are ranked in the bottom 10 nationally in several key funding and staffing level categories. The campaign calls on the state Legislature to raise public school funding to the national average by 2020 and to the average of the top 10 states by 2025.

“These new nationwide poll results are consistent with increased awareness in California about the disinvestment in our public schools,” said CSBA CEO & Executive Director Vernon M. Billy. “There is a strong desire by the public to reverse this trend. Teachers, staff, students, parents and community members can rally together and join us in the fight for Full and Fair Funding to restore the promise of California’s public education system.”

The polling finds that views on school funding are also associated with teachers leaving the profession at a time when staffing shortages continue to challenge California’s districts. Fifty-four percent of teachers who say the public schools in their community have too little money have seriously considered leaving, as opposed to 39 percent of those who say their schools are adequately funded.

Backing the latest research on funding’s connection to school quality, 60 percent of people who say their community schools’ funding is “about right” give their schools an A or B for quality. The percentage drops to 38 percent for respondents who say their schools have too little funding. Overall, 60 percent of all adults, 62 percent of parents and 68 percent of teachers say the quality of public schools is related to the amount spent on students in the schools. Views that funding and school quality are linked have risen over the years, from 50 percent among all adults in 1998 to today’s 60 percent.

This year’s version of the 51st annual poll conducted interviews with a random national sample of 2,389 adults, including 1,083 parents of school-age children and 556 public school teachers. In addition to funding and school quality, poll questions address issues such as religious studies and civics in the classroom, workforce preparation and discipline.