The majority of American parents like the schools their children attend, but hate the U.S. public school system overall, according to a poll released Monday.

Gallup Inc. said 76 per cent of U.S. adults were at least somewhat satisfied with the level of education their own child or children receive in that country's public school system.

More than half of the parents surveyed, however, thought that the American public school system was performing at a less-than-stellar level.

Gallup, which asked 1,010 American adults their opinion between Aug.6 to 9, said the contradiction — satisfaction with their particular circumstances but a belief that the overall system was in poor shape — is regularly seen in national polling.

The Gallup poll was considered to be accurate 95 per cent of the time with confidence limits of four percentage points.

"It is not unusual to find that Americans rate aspects of society more negatively at the national level than they do at the local level. Education is a prime example of this phenomenon," the Princeton, N.J.-based pollster said in an analysis of its findings.

Public vs. private

Fully three-quarters of parents who enrolled their offspring in public schools were at least somewhat satisfied with their own children's education.

Those figures were almost as high as the satisfaction levels found once you added in those mothers and fathers who had placed their sons and daughters in private or parochial schools, or home-schooled their children.

That means parents with children in U.S. public schools were just as happy with their children's achievements as men and women who educated their sons and daughters outside the public system.

Approximately 12 per cent of U.S. households have children in private schools, while 81 per cent of American families had sons and daughters in public facilities.

Canada vs. U.S.

Interestingly, the American findings roughly parallel findings in Canadian surveys.

For example, the Canadian Education Association's 2007 survey of attitudes towards public education discovered that 81 per cent of those surveyed gave their local school a grade of A, B or C.

Only 12 per cent of parents asked were unhappy with their children's schools versus 21 per cent in the Gallup poll of U.S. attitudes.

But Gallup used a "satisfied-unsatisfied" question to gauge opinion, while the CEA made respondents answer based on a grade scheme.

In addition, American views of public education have not changed much in the past seven years and have not improved despite former president George Bush's attempts to improve the U.S. school system.

"Overall satisfaction with schools in this country is no higher now than it was before the 2002 enactment of the sweeping No Child Left Behind legislation," Gallup said.