Schools receive mostly good grades

Nearly 70 percent said Ohio isn't providing enough aid to schools.
ATHENS, Ohio -- Most Ohioans give their schools good marks but think state support of schools is inadequate.
That's the key finding of a telephone survey of 717 randomly selected Ohio residents Feb. 12-17. The survey was designed and executed by political communication students at Ohio University using the Scripps Survey Research Center.
Respondents were asked to give a letter grade to schools in the district in which they live. Sixteen percent graded their schools with an A, 39 percent a B, 23 percent a C, 10 percent a D, 4 percent an F and 8 percent said they don't know.
Sixty-seven percent said Ohio is not providing enough support for schools, and 52 percent said the state's school funding is unfair or inequitable.
On local property taxes, respondents were almost evenly divided, with 44 percent saying they were about right and 40 percent saying they were too high. Seven percent said they were too low, and 9 percent had no opinion.
Republicans less critical
Republicans rated schools higher than Democrats and were less critical of finances. Seventeen percent of Republicans gave schools an A, and 46 percent gave schools a B, compared with 15 percent A and 37 percent B by Democrats.
Only 21 percent of Republicans said state support was too low, but 79 percent of the Democrats said it was too low. Fifty-two percent of the Republicans said property taxes were about right, and only 41 percent of the Democrats said so.
Sampling error for this survey is 4 percent. Completion rate was 64 percent.