Times are tough, and these days moms are willing to make tough compromises in order to support schools. According to our recent survey of 460 mothers of school-age children, 94% would be willing to see some form of advertising in order to offset budget cuts (only 6% of moms find advertising on school property unacceptable).
Other key findings from the survey:
Exposure to Ads: The most kosher formats? Ads on scoreboards and in school news bulletins that go out to parents -- 94% of parents felt they were appropriate. The least palatable include commercials airing during in-classroom TV and radio broadcasts (only 22% approved) as well as ads running on school bus radios (31% approved).
Not as Good as They Used To Be? Overall, the moms surveyed gave schools a B+ rating, and only one-third thought their kids were having a better school experience than they did when they were kids.
Too Much Work: The older kids get, the more likely moms are to be unsatisfied with their child's school experience. 42% think that their kids get too much homework, 53% feel that school is too demanding, and 19% said their kids are unhappy about going to school most days.
Testing, Testing: Moms are overwhelmingly opposed to evaluating schools based on state-mandated standardized testing. 43% felt that forcing schools to teach based on tests does more harm than good, and 55% think that schools should be judged on other criteria besides test scores.
Top Priority: If their kid's school faced budget cuts, 56% of moms say they'd fight hardest to preserve small class sizes. Next in line? Teacher salaries.
This survey was conducted by the nationally-representative MomConnection research panel as part of our support for Mom Congress on Education and Learning, a new initiative developed to celebrate and connect moms advocating for education reform.
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