ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 28, 1996 TAG: 9608280045
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
VOUCHERS FOR private or religious schools also gained steam, but are not yet backed by most Americans.
Most Americans support school uniforms and more classroom time for teens, a poll says. They oppose using tax dollars for private and religious schools, but the idea is gaining strength.
The annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll released Tuesday surveyed 1,329 adults on a broad range of education issues.
When pollsters asked whether parents should be allowed to send their children to private schools at taxpayer expense, 61 percent said no, 36 percent said yes and the rest didn't know, said Lowell Rose, executive director emeritus of Phi Delta Kappa.
That's down from 1993, when 74 percent opposed the idea.
Resistance decreased when pollsters asked whether Americans should be given a voucher to send their child to any school - private or public. Fifty-four percent opposed that plan.
The 28th annual poll by Phi Delta Kappa also found:
* 53 percent favored uniforms for public school students.
* 63 percent did not think schools should teach about gay and lesbian lifestyles, and 58 percent said gay and lesbian clubs should not be allowed in public schools.
* 66 percent favored a community service requirement for high school graduates.
* 60 percent said high school students should spend more time in school, but only 49 percent thought the school year or day should be extended for elementary school students.
Generally, the poll clearly shows a strong base of support for the public schools, Rose said.
``At the same time, however, there is a feeling on the part of the public - a kind of impatience - to have improvement in the schools,'' he said. ``There is an ever-increasing level of support for public funding of private schools.''
Critics say the poll by an educators' group distorts Americans' views about public vs. private education, a topic on this year's presidential campaign trail.
Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole supports vouchers - tax-backed coupons that parents can use to send their children to the school of their choice. But President Clinton, while embracing the idea of giving parents more choice among public schools, rejects handing out vouchers for private or religious schools.
Gallup pollsters also asked the parents of public schoolchildren what they would do if they were handed a $3,500 voucher. Sixty percent said they would keep their children in the same school or move them to a different public school.
Thirty-seven percent said they would send their children to a private school.
``This latest poll should lay to rest the myth that the American people believe that vouchers are the answer to improving education,'' said Keith Geiger, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union.
But Jeanne Allen, director of the nonprofit, pro-voucher Center for Education Reform, questioned the poll results, citing another poll last year of 1,200 Americans by the Public Agenda Foundation. It showed that nearly six in 10 parents with children in public schools would send them to private schools if they could afford it.
``There is enormous frustration with public schools,'' she said.
Public school leaders should be more open to the idea of letting poor children use vouchers to attend private schools, said Chester Finn Jr., a fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank based in Indianapolis.
``Denying such children the option of attending those schools means that the very students whose needs are greatest are barred by a condition completely outside of their control - their parents' income - from access to alternatives that could improve their life chances and expand their educational opportunities,'' Finn said in a report he issued Monday.
Gallup conducted the poll for the Bloomington, Ind.-based Phi Delta Kappa, which describes itself as a nonpartisan, professional group for educators. It conducts research and training for teachers and others.
The poll surveyed 1,329 adults by telephone in May. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points for responses involving the entire sample.
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