Americans are convinced that math and science skills are crucial for the future, according to "Are We Beginning To See The Light?", a Public Agenda survey which found strong majorities who say there will be more jobs and college opportunities for students with those skills. The survey, done with funding from the GE Foundation, also found that while there's broad support from parents and the general public for K-12 national standards, more than half of parents (52%) say the math and science their child is getting in school is "fine as it is."

These are just some of many surprising realities facing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in public schools, according to the results of this nationwide survey which explored the views of over 1,400 individuals including 646 parents of children grades K-12.

Nine in 10 Americans surveyed say studying advanced math and science is useful even for students who don't pursue a STEM career. But few Americans think it is absolutely essential for students to understand advanced sciences like physics (28%) and advanced math like calculus (26%) and nearly 7 in 10 Americans say science can wait until middle school and high school.

At the same time, a plurality of parents with children in grades 6-12 say they want to see more emphasis in their child's school in STEM topics such as computer programming (65%), basic engineering principles (52%) and statistics and probability (49%). Sixty percent of parents also say they want their children to take advanced math courses in high school and 54 percent said the same about advanced science courses in high school.

Seventy percent of parents would like to see their local schools spend more money on up-to-date and well-equipped science labs; 69 percent say the same about more equipment for hands-on learning and 68 percent favor increased spending for more equipment to help students learn computer and technology skills.