A new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll poll released today shows that only 18% of residents believe the public schools in their local community are doing an excellent job, although nearly double that say their schools are doing a good job.

According to the poll, which was conducted in conjunction with Project Ready, found that 35% said their schools were doing a good job; 26% said their local public schools were doing only a fair job and 15% said the schools are doing a poor job.

Six percent were unsure of how to rate the job their local public schools are doing.

However, when asked how they felt about their children’s safety, New Jerseyans were more unified – more than three-quarters felt public schools in their community were very (32%) or somewhat (46%) safe. Ten percent said their local public schools were not very safe and 8 percent said the schools were not safe at all. Four percent were unsure.

Interestingly, Democrats were more than twice as likely to rate their local public schools as excellent (27 percent), compared with independents (14 percent) and Republicans (12 percent).

Locally, the Lakewood Public School District has seen significant improvements on last spring’s State standardized tests, according to results obtained from the district.

The Rutgers-Eagleton poll was conducted from April 27 to May 5 and had a sample size of 1,002 adults and a margin of error of +/- 3.6%.