Americans Say They Don't Want to Pay More Taxes for Schools

Half of Americans say they're not willing to pay any extra in taxes and fees to generate more money for schools, according to a poll released Tuesday from Rasmussen Reports.

Although 50 percent said they wouldn't be willing to pay extra money in higher taxes and fees to generate more money for schools, nearly the same amount (48 percent) say they believe the local community doesn't spend enough on education. Twenty-six percent say local communities spend the right amount of money on education while a smaller percentage -- 16 percent -- say the local community spends too much on education.

Most respondents -- 69 percent -- said they would rate the performance of their child's school as either "excellent" or "good." Twenty-two percent said they'd rate the performance of their child's school as "fair" and only 6 percent would rate the performance of their child's school as "poor."

But when it came to rating the performance of elementary and secondary schools in America, the majority -- 66 percent -- rated schools as either "fair" or "poor" while 26 percent rated schools as "good." Only 4 percent said the performance of America's elementary and secondary schools was "excellent."

The survey of 1,000 American adults was conducted Oct. 22-23 by Rasmussen Reports.