Credit: AP

Grab your No. 2 pencils; it’s time for a pop quiz. Don’t worry—there’s only one question, and it’s multiple choice.

The purpose of sending children to school is to

A. Help them develop knowledge and critical-thinking skills.
B. Prepare them for citizenship.
C. Prepare them for work.
D. All of the above.

In a perfect world, D would be the correct answer. But a new poll shows that fewer than half of Americans believe the purpose of education is to acquire knowledge, while the rest are divided between thinking the purpose is to prepare students for work and the goal is to help them become good citizens.

That split, analysts say, is evidence that the struggling economy is having a lingering effect on how parents view the national school system. It’s also evidence, other experts say, of a two-tiered system in U.S. public education: knowledge for people who can afford it, work skills for everyone else.

The results of the 48th annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools “seem to assume and even accept that […]