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Polling for Truth: Examining Canadian Views on Public Education

Helen Raham

Public opinion polls area double-edged sword. They can give us insight into the strengths and weaknesses of our education system. They may be helpful in assisting to develop policy directions and address concerns about performance of the system. But they can also serve less noble purposes. In sum, they highlight issues we must pay attention to, but do not provide the answers for creating successful schools.

A recent public opinion poll commissioned by the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) [The poll of 504 adults was conducted by McIntyre and Mustel in May 1997 and considered accurate to plus or minus 4.5 percent 19 times out of 20.] focused attention on the issues of funding and class size. The findings were used to advance teacher positions as the second round of bargaining to achieve a first provincial contract commenced. The federation's media release and conference made much of poll results on school quality, spending levels, and class sizes. Indeed, fully 78 percent of the respondents rated the quality of public education satisfactory or better, 71 percent said education spending should be increased or maintained despite the deficit, and 79 percent of parents wanted limits on class sizes maintained.

Other equally significant findings in the poll were not released to the media. These included:

Quality

Only 12 percent found the quality of education has improved over the past three years; 34 percent said it had declined, while 40 percent rated quality the same. Education funding in British Columbia has remained steady over the same period.

Choice

Fully 50 percent of respondents felt more choices and options should be available in the public system. One year ago, the BCTF spent $1.6 million on a public relations campaign to assure the public that there was sufficient choice in the public schools system. Paradoxically, the president of the BCTF was insisting, "Providing choices such as traditional schools will destroy public education." [Alice McQuade, BCTF President, "Teachers urged to take a stand," Vancouver Sun, March 19, 1996.]

Accountability

In rating various aspects of public schools, accountability to taxpayers tied with class sizes for the lowest score. The class size issue was singled out by the BCTF for major publicity. There was no mention of accountability. Perhaps that could be attributed to the fact that the BCTF had just submitted a strongly worded brief to Education Minister Ramsey [BCTF/McQuade & McMurphy, Opportunities to Learn: Accountability in Education in BC, June 1997.] which recommended shelving the Comptroller-General's report calling for greater accountability for performance in the B.C. K-12 education system. [Office of the Comptroller General, Report on Accountability in the K-12 Education System, April 1997.]

Increased taxes

Sixty-two percent of respondents opposed returning power to school boards to raise additional money for schools through property taxes. Education spending spiralled upwards by some 40 percent during the first four years (1989-93) of full collective teacher bargaining with local school boards. In 1995, the BC government introduced provincial bargaining within the framework of a prescribed education budget, a move strongly opposed by the BCTF.

What wasn't asked

The poll commissioned by the BCTF is also of interest for what it failed to ask. Although there was a set of questions probing people's opinions about social issues with particular attention paid to the question of presenting homosexuality in the schools, there were no queries directly related to the quality of instruction or academic performance. Those questions remain to be asked by others.

Given the critical importance of public education performance to the future success of Canadian citizens in a global economy, the system must pay attention to confidence levels in our schools.

New research by Guppy (UBC) and Davies (McGill) presented at the 1997 meeting of the American Sociological Association in August this year gave a broader context to public views on the school system. [Neil Guppy and Scott Davies, Understanding the Declining Confidence of Canadian in Public Education, July 1997.] Their study analyzed and merged data from every major public opinion poll on education in Canada from 1974 to 1995. The authors focused on questions of confidence, and concluded that various questions about satisfaction or confidence showed a pattern of significant decline over the past three decades.

In their analysis they were able to statistically rule out common explanations such as changing demographics, negative media attention, and waning confidence in public institutions in general. They concluded that the declining confidence in public schools is best explained "not as a simple failure in the school system's performance, but as a system that is under-performing, failing to match heightened expectations." [Ibid, p. 18.] In other words, today's parents and employers are raising the bar, demanding more from the system on behalf of all students as we shift to the knowledge economy.

Commenting on their most recent education poll in Ontario (September '97), the senior vice-president of Environics Research, Jane Armstrong, notes, "Respondents are giving the system a passing grade, but are very concerned about the system not being what it was." [`Power struggle rocks Canada's schools,' Globe and Mail, October 11, 1997.]

No one will argue that opinion polls should be the sole basis for shaping effective public policy. Indeed, visionary leadership may require policy makers to ignore public opinion at times. Nonetheless, the preponderance of evidence over decades reveals a public that deeply cares about the quality of the public education system, is dissatisfied with its performance, and yet expects governments to achieve results within a fiscally responsible framework.

The urgent challenge to governments across Canada is to restore confidence in our schools while implementing education policies that connect to the realities of today's world: limited resources and expectations for improved productivity, higher quality, increased choices and more accountability.

For this, government will need to rely increasingly on principles of sound management, performance measurement, competition, and research data on what works to improve learning.

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Last Modified: Wednesday, October 20, 1999.