The Associated Press

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - A survey by an Indiana University institute has found that most Indiana residents are satisfied with the state's public schools, although parents of school-age children generally believe schools are underfunded.

2003 Public Survey on Education in Indiana

To see the entire report, Click here (Acrobat PDF file)

When asked by IU's Center for Evaluation and Educational Policy to rate public schools as excellent, good, fair or poor, 56 percent of the 1,001 respondents rated the schools as good or excellent, and 40 percent rated them fair or poor.

Respondents tended to rate local schools higher, with 62 percent calling them good to excellent and 32 percent labeling them as poor.

The results of the center's 2003 Public Survey on Education in Indiana, which was conducted by telephone in November, were released last week.

Jonathan Plucker, the director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, said one of the survey's goals was to see how specific Indiana data compared to results on national education surveys.

Among its other findings:

• More than half of the respondents believe public schools are underfunded, and nearly 70 percent of parents with school-age children feel that way.

• Respondents generally favor the state's ISTEP test and like the idea of having a rigorous performance test in place.