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LIFESTYLE

68% Say School Discipline Is Too Easy These Days

Most Americans think there's not enough discipline in public schools today and feel it's tougher for teachers to maintain control than it was when they were kids.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 68% of American Adults believe discipline in public schools is too easy. Only five percent (5%) say it’s too tough, while 19% think the level of discipline imposed in modern public school classrooms is about right. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

Seventy-eight percent (78%) of adults say it’s harder for a teacher to maintain discipline in the classroom than it was when they were students.  Just 13% disagree.

But only 11% think a student's behavior in class is primarily the teacher's responsibility. Forty-seven percent (47%) say parents are most responsible for their child's behavior, while 36% believe the students themselves are responsible. Two percent (2%) delegate that responsibility to school authorities, and one percent (1%) think the police are most responsible.

(Want a free daily e-mail update?  If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The national telephone survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 19-20, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.  Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.  See methodology.

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