Yesterday, the Marquette University Law School released its latest poll of Wisconsin residents regarding politics and public policy issues in Wisconsin. The long-running poll regularly surveys hundreds of registered voters in Wisconsin to ask their opinions on elected officials, political candidates, and a variety of policy matters. The most recent poll interviewed 802 registered Wisconsin voters by landline or cell phone Feb. 22-27, 2022. Below are the responses to questions asked about education issues:
The question of who should have the biggest role in determining public school curriculum produces varied answers, with 35% saying parents, 33% saying teachers, 13% saying school boards, and 9% saying superintendents and principals. Five percent say state legislators should have the major role in curriculum.
On this issue, there is a divide along party lines, with Republicans and independents giving parents the larger role and Democrats assigning it to teachers, as shown in Table 25.
Table 25: Who should play biggest role in school curriculum, by party, February 2022
| Party ID | Teachers | School Boards |
Parents | Superintendents and principals |
State |
Don’t know | Refused |
| Republican | 17 | 11 | 56 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| Independent | 29 | 7 | 43 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 1 |
| Democrat | 53 | 16 | 9 | 14 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
A policy of “allowing all students statewide to use publicly funded vouchers to attend private or religious schools” is supported by 59% and opposed by 37%. When last asked in August 2020, the question was worded as to whether a respondent agreed or disagreed with a policy to “provide tax-funded vouchers to be used for private or religious schools.” At that time, 41% agreed with providing vouchers, and 49% disagreed with the policy.
A majority of respondents, 55%, say public schools are in worse shape than a few years ago, while 29% say they are in about the same shape, and 9% say they are better now. In August 2018, 44% said schools had gotten worse, 34% said they were about the same, and 15% said schools had gotten better.
Asked their opinion of the standards for education in Wisconsin schools, 47% of voters say the standards are lower than they should be, 31% say they are about where they should be, and 12% say they are higher than they should be. This is little changed from January 2014, when 47% said standards were too low, 32% said they were where they should be, and 15% said standards were too high.
