Poll: Public school satisfaction trending down, but Wisconsinites unclear on details

More than half of Wisconsinites say educational standards are too low, but at the same time, they don’t know if reading and math test scores have gone up or down. 

The Marquette University Law School poll released last week found overall, people are more dissatisfied with schools.

Across Wisconsin, 58 percent of people say they are either very satisfied or satisfied with the public schools in their community, while 41 percent are either very dissatisfied or dissatisfied.

Satisfaction rates with public schools have been sliding since 2018, but the recent number was only the second time the poll found the figure has dipped below 60 percent.

Charles Franklin, who directs the Marquette poll, said satisfaction rates have been trending down for several years. But he said the most dramatic change has been people’s feelings about funding for schools. 

“You see a really dramatic reversal from where we were as recently as 2018,” Franklin said. “Now, property taxes are the dominant concern.” 

In the current survey, 58 percent said holding down property taxes is more important than funding for public schools. 

Since 2019, there has been a steady increase in concern about keeping down property taxes, Franklin said. 

The poll also showed an increase in favorability for allowing students to use vouchers to attend private or religious schools. 

A majority of Republicans, 57 percent, would increase funding for private schools, while 69 percent of independents and 93 percent of Democrats would increase funding for public schools.

The poll surveyed 864 registered voters between Feb. 19 and Feb. 26 and has a margin of error of 4.6 percent. 

Respondents unclear about many school issues

Pollsters started talking to voters the day after the primary election for state superintendent, but 64 percent of people still had no opinion of incumbent Jill Underly and 71 percent said they haven’t heard enough about her opponent, Brittany Kinser.

The general election is April 1. 

Kinser has said she is running to restore high standards in academics. She supports a bill in the Legislature to reverse changes to Wisconsin school testing benchmarks. 

Underly said since the pandemic, the standards have gotten more challenging and testing standards have increased in math and science. 

Still, 60 percent surveyed say Wisconsin schools have set standards lower than they should be. In 2014, 47 percent of people said standards were too low. 

Despite the 13 percent increase in people having a negative opinion of educational standards, 45 percent said they haven’t heard enough to know if reading test scores have gone up or down over the past five years. 

Similarly, 43 percent haven’t heard enough about math test scores to have an opinion, and 54 percent haven’t heard enough about whether the achievement gap between high-income and low-income students has changed. 

“So, there’s this general sense that the schools are doing subpar, but then there’s this really fragile base of information about that,” Franklin said.