Poll shows partisan split on schools

Parents’ faith in their children’s schools remains high but the public’s confidence in American K-12 education is at a record low, according to polling by the Gallup organization? Why would that be?

Relentless attacks on public schools are certainly part of it. As Peter Greene writes in Forbes, “There was a time when supporting public schools was as politically innocuous as babies and apple pie.” Now, criticism is common, loud and extreme, and “accusations that teachers are pedophiles and groomers and porn peddlers are not unusual,” he writes.

In the recent Gallup poll, 76% of parents said they were very or somewhat satisfied with the school attended by their oldest child. But, among all respondents, only 36% were satisfied with the nation’s schools, tying the all-time low. That’s a huge gap: 40 percentage points.

Gallup has been polling about education since 1999, and the divide between parents and others has been a consistent finding. Most parents have always given high marks to their own children’s schools, but they tend to be more skeptical of the nation’s schools. People with no direct experience with schools are the most likely to give America’s schools low grades.

The poll doesn’t distinguish between public and private schools, but most U.S. students attend public schools – in Indiana, it’s 90% – so it’s fair to think the results reflect attitudes toward public education.

The split between parents and others isn’t surprising. If you have a child in school, you’re probably at least somewhat aware of what goes on there. You know that teachers are real people, not abstractions, and that most are doing their best to help your child learn. That shows up in the polling data: Three-fourths of parents say their children’s teachers are excellent or good.

If you don’t have any direct connection with a school, on the other hand, your perceptions come from what you see and hear in the news or online. And negative news is likely to get the most attention.

While the split between parents and the public is an old story, polling reveals a new and growing partisan chasm over America’s schools. Only one in four Republicans is very or somewhat satisfied with U.S. schools compared to 44% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.

“The 25% of Republicans who say they are at least somewhat satisfied with U.S. education is the lowest recorded for the group, five points below the previous low recorded last year and about half of what it was in 2019 and 2020,” Gallup’s Megan Brenan writes. It’s 18 percentage points below the historical average of Republican approval, which is 43%.

The last time public approval of schools fell to 36%, Brenan writes, there was little difference between Republicans and Democrats. That was in 2000. A year later, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, a bipartisan attempt to improve education with standards and testing.

The new partisan split over schools isn’t surprising, however. Recent attacks on public schools, including evidence-free claims about “wokeness,” critical race theory, etc., have come exclusively from the right.  They’ve been manufactured by the Heritage Foundation and other conservative organizations, and far-right groups like Moms for Liberty and Purple for Parents have fanned the flames.

As Greene notes in Forbes, it’s part of a cynical attempt by the right to undermine faith in public schools. Advocates like the Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo may not think schools are bad, but saying so serves a purpose. It brings to mind a well-known quote that’s variously attributed, but never to the good guys:

“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.”