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The results of the 2009 PDK/Gallup Poll of Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools became public yesterday, and they're fascinating. There is something in the poll to please and dismay education ideologues of every stripe.

Here are some of the tidbits I found most interesting:

Most people like charter schools (whatever those are). No big surprise here. President Obama's strong support for charters has probably fueled their rise in popularity. But most respondents think charters are private schools that charge tuition and select students on the basis of ability. (Note to the uninitiated: None of that is true.) Public enthusiasm has outrun public understanding. Charter supporters and skeptics alike have much work to do to educate Americans about this piece of the president's reform agenda.

Most people like merit pay for teachers, but the devil's in the details. Almost three out of four respondents favored merit pay for teachers, and about as many said teachers should should be paid more for raising student achievement. But over eighty percent supported extra pay for advanced degrees, an idea that is anathema to many merit pay boosters.

Support is growing for early childhood education, even if it drives up taxes. Support for mandatory Kindergarten has grown significantly in the past twenty years. So has support for starting school at age four, though six in ten respondents still opposed that idea. Most dramatically, support for locating preschools in public schools--rather than parents' workplaces or special facilities--has jumped from 29 to 50 percent since 1992.

Almost 60 percent of respondents even said they were willing to pay higher taxes to support preschool for children whose parents cannot afford it. Yet that number is slightly lower than it was in 1993, long before Lehman Brothers tanked, unemployment skyrocketed, and fear of socialism stalked the land. Those numbers may improve in brighter times.

Mamas, let your babies grow up to be public school teachers. This is one of the poll's most heartening findings. A full 70 percent of parents said they would like a child of theirs to take up public school teaching as a career. That's up from 48 percent in 1980. Decades of dire warnings about public education have apparently not tarnished the teaching profession. In fact, the focus on education may have raised it in public esteem. 

A Final Observation. Year after year, the PDK/Gallup poll finds that the public just won't get with anyone's ideological program.