Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 6, 1994                   TAG: 9404060113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INT                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

PARENTS BLAME SCHOOL PROBLEMS ON PARENTS

Suggested solutions included homework hot lines and employer-donated time off from work for school volunteers.

The survey, sponsored by the American Association of School Administrators, said parents generally give good grades to their local schools. But they say schools could improve if they crack down on troublemakers, reduce overcrowding, teach values and increase parental involvement.

Pollster Celinda Lake said parents cited lack of time as the No.1 reason for not getting involved. More than a quarter said they believe they don't care enough.

"I am a working mom," a Dayton, Ohio, woman told the pollsters. "I think it is really tough. I think families are so squeezed for having time with their kids."

In his State of the Union address in January, Clinton stressed the role of parents.

"Parents who know their children's teachers and turn off the television and help with the homework and teach their kids right from wrong - these kind of parents can make all the difference," he said. "I know. I had one."

Education Secretary Richard Riley has implored parents to spend more time with their children.

Lake said parents would like an hour off each month to volunteer in school. Forty-six percent strongly favor a requirement that each parent volunteer for at least one day each school year.

As to what the schools can do, 44 percent of the parents strongly favor a homework hot line that gives details about their child's assignments, the poll said. Lake said parents also would like curriculum handbooks and a monthly newsletter.

Twenty-one percent said increased parental involvement helps children and parents take school more seriously, 18 percent said it helps solve discipline problems and 17 percent said it helps instill values in children.

Twenty percent said the lack of discipline and values makes education worse locally; 22 said it is a detriment nationally.

The survey said public school parents tend to grade their own schools better than schools overall.

"The closer people are to their schools, the better they like them," Paul Houston, the association's executive director, said.