Parents Displeased with Public School Discipline

An AP poll released June 27th revealed that some 85% of parents feel that a general lack of student discipline is a serious problem, edging out "gangs and violence" as the number two problem, just behind getting and keeping good teachers (at 87%). Of course, the teacher retention problem is consequential to the discipline problem. If 85% of parents are dissatisfied with school discipline, what do you think the percentage of teachers who feel the same way would be? I personally just left the Memphis area after teaching in the public schools there for over ten years. My reasons for leaving were many and varied, but the atrocious behavior of disrespectful students coupled with anemic board disciplinary policies and administrators apathetic to classroom disorder were extremely motivating factors. Parents, students, and teachers can all agree on one thing, though; according to the survey, only 58% of parents thought that a need for more instructional time was a serious problem, second only to the availability of athletic facilities as the least pressing problem. The poll could be helpful if school boards would take a hard look at the data in these results and promulgate tough policy changes to address the fact that more than 83% of parents think that school boards set low expectations for students, leading to both low test scores and inappropriate behavior in school.