Choices?

Two in five parents would choose a different school for their children if they had the choice again.

But parents were less likely to have regrets if they did their own research by visiting the school, speaking to staff or using information on the My School website, rather than relying on word of mouth or doing no research.

Adrian Piccoli, director of the Gonski Institute for Education - a think tank focusing on equity in schooling - said parents who chose non-government schools might have felt more satisfied because those schools could choose their students, while public schools were required to take everybody.

"Private schools can essentially select who their cohort is, and that's a big advantage," he said. "If you are a student and your parents are happy to pay the school fees but you are running amok ... that school can, one way or the other, get you out."

Professor Piccoli said satisfaction included factors that were beyond schools' control. "If a student's experience hasn't been what you might have expected, it's not just the school," he said. "It might be the student and all the other influences on that student."

The poll also found 88 per cent of parents thought their school was at least adequately resourced, including 86 per cent of students at government schools. Parents' spending priorities were facilities and extra curricular activities.