High school students at an alternative learning program in Manchester, N.H.
/ AP photo
Confidence in public schools has dropped to the lowest point in nearly 40 years, according to a new Gallup survey, as American opinion turned against a variety of social institutions, such as religion, banks and television news.
Only 29 percent of Americans said they had a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the country's public schools, just half the 58 percent who had confidence in the schools when Gallup first started asking the question in 1973.
This year's drop in confidence was substantial -- 5 percentage points lower than it was in 2011, when 34 percent had faith in public schools.
Attitudes toward public schools come in the context of generally eroding faith in many of society's institutions. Americans had record low confidence in the church or organized religions (44 percent), banks (21 percent) and television news (21 percent).
And institutions of government come off quite poorly as well: only 13 percent had a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Congress; a mere 37 percent felt the same way about the U.S. Supreme Court; and 37 percent had confidence in the presidency.
The institutions Americans had most confidence in include the military (75 percent), small business (63 percent) and the police (56 percent).
No institutions in the Gallup Confidence in Institutions survey posted substantial gains from a year ago. While the medical system, the presidency and big business had a 2 percentage point uptick in confidence, they were within the margin of error.
"[T]he declining confidence seems to be part of a broader pattern, rather than a product of isolated issues facing individual institutions. Once Americans begin to feel better about the way things are going in the United States, some of their lost confidence in the country's major institutions will likely be restored," Gallup says.
The Gallup Poll was conducted June 7-10, with a sample of 1,004 adults and a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
