local schools,‖ USA TODAY, August 17, 2011.) http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-08-16-public-schools-poll-parents_n.htm
Ironically, when it came to their children‘s own school, parental attitudes were far more positive. Writer Toppo stated: Nearly eight in 10 Americans — 79% — give an ‗A or B‘ grade to the school their oldest child attends, according to findings released today by Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) International, an educators association. That's up from 68% in 2001, and the highest percentage of favorable ratings since PDK began asking the question in 1985. That year, 71% of parents gave their kids' school top grades. (Greg Toppo, ―Poll: Parent give thumbs up to local schools,‖ USA TODAY, August 17, 2011.) http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-08-16-public-schools-pollparents_n.htm
However, doubts also seemed to exist regarding the efficacy of postsecondary education institutions, according to an online survey of more than 1,000 college and university CEOs, which indicated that ―only 19% of college presidents say the U.S. system of higher education is the best in the world now, and just 7% say they believe it will be the best in the world ten years from now.‖ (Paul Taylor, ed., Is College Worth It? College Presidents, Public Assess Value, Quality and Mission of Higher Education, Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center— Social & Demographic Trends, May 16, 2011, p. 2.) http://pewsocialtrends.org/files/2011/05/higher-ed-report.pdf
Now, I‘ll quote, at length, from a 2006 report by The Secretary of Education‘s Commission on the Future of Higher in the United States; that study, requested by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, stated: We acknowledge that not everyone needs to go to college. But everyone needs a postsecondary education. Indeed, we have seen ample evidence that some form of postsecondary instruction is increasingly vital to an individual‘s economic security. Yet too many Americans just aren‘t getting the education that they need—and that they deserve. We are losing some students in our high schools, which do not yet see preparing all pupils for postsecondary education and training as their responsibility. Others don‘t enter college because of inadequate information and rising costs, combined with a confusing financial aid system that spends too little on those who need help the most. Among high school graduates who do make it on to postsecondary education, a troubling number waste time—and taxpayer dollars— mastering English and math skills that they should have learned in high school. And some never complete their degrees at all, at least in part 8