Black parents favor focusing on schools' quality over diversity and integration, poll finds

Jet, August 17, 1998

Black parents, like their White counterparts, care more about high standards for their schools than achieving integration and diversity, according to a new poll.

The survey, conducted by Public Agenda, found that Black and White parents believe that integrated schools made little difference in the education that children receive.

Of the Black parents surveyed, 51 percent felt this way, while 72 percent of White parents felt the same way. Both groups, however, value racial diversity, the poll found, but they viewed it more as an idea than as a reality.

"Whites are fearful that integration will bring troubled children into local schools," said the report from the nonpartisan group. "Blacks fear their children will be thrown into hostile and contentious school environments."

Even so, the poll found that Black and White parents both have "strikingly similar visions of what it takes to educate kids." Parental involvement was a key ingredient in many answers.

Black parents also felt, according to the poll, that schools needed to do a better job teaching the contributions of Blacks and other minorities to American history: Nearly seven in 10 believed racial stereotypes caused teachers and principals to expect less of Black students.

Concerning school vouchers, the survey found that only 27 percent of Black parents thought it an "excellent" idea for families to get financial aid so they can take their children out of failing public schools and send them to private schools, compared with 15 percent of White parents. When combined with those who thought it a "good" idea, the favorable response was 54 percent among Blacks and 36 percent among Whites.

Public Agenda surveyed 800 Blacks and 800 Whites, who were picked randomly. The poll was done from late March to mid-April. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.