Grades for Schools Reach All-Time High

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WE ARE told that education is now the number-one priority on the political agenda at the federal and state levels. That being the case, policy makers should be interested in the fact that public approval of the public schools, as measured by the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll, is at its highest level in the poll's 33-year history.

The growing confidence in the public schools is probably one of the reasons why support for allowing parents and students to choose private schools to attend at public expense continues to decline. At the same time, that confidence almost certainly contributes to the overwhelming belief that improvement in American education should come from reform …