Republicans’ trust in the public education system hit its lowest point this year, according to a new Gallup poll — and for good reason.
Only 14% of Republicans say they have “quite a lot” of confidence in public schools, compared with 34% in 2020. Similarly, independents’ confidence dropped from 38% to 29% between 2020 and 2022. Democrats saw a smaller decline, with 48% reporting a great deal of confidence in 2020, versus 43% today.
In 2020, confidence had risen across the board, reaching 41%, its highest level since the early 90s, compared to 29% in 2019. This year, overall confidence dropped closer to where rates have been over the past decade, sitting now at 28%.
Still, the partisan split has never been so pronounced. A 29% gap stands between Democrats and Republicans, revealing vastly different perceptions on the state of education and visions for its direction.
Over the past few years, schools were thrust into the center of debates on COVID issues of masking, remote learning, and shutdowns. While people broadly agree student needs were given too little priority throughout the pandemic — a recent Pew Research poll records that 62% hold that sentiment — Republicans were most frustrated by shutdowns that kept students at home.
The promotion of leftist causes in the classroom is another root of conservatives’ plummeting confidence rates. Concerns over the inclusion of critical race theory and gender ideology in curricula have made Republicans increasingly distrustful of public schools. Revelations of taxpayer-funded drag queen story hours and sexually explicit assigned reading certainly have not worked to instill greater faith.
Low confidence levels, however, are not limited to public schools. Nearly every major U.S. institution, save the military and small businesses, is losing the public’s trust. From Congress to churches to the media, Americans have dismal outlooks on the performance of our culture-binding institutions. Polarization marks much of this polling, too, with Republicans and Democrats maintaining gaps in confidence of 30 percentage points or more on the presidency, police, and newspapers.
Polarization is particularly harmful in education, where children’s needs, not adults’ visions for social and political change, ought to be prioritized. Too many see inculcating children with progressive values as a higher priority than educating.
Yet headline-dominating fights over critical race theory represent only the most recent of problems with public education. Confidence in education has been trending downhill for decades, and those who say they have confidence in the system have not reached 50% since 1987.
Restoring trust and reducing polarization means prioritizing what parents want rather than partisan interests. EdChoice’s June report shows that parents of students attending district schools are least likely to be “very satisfied” with their child’s education compared to charter, private, and homeschool parents. Among parents of public school students, 39% say they are very satisfied, compared with 65% of private school parents.
Fixing education requires new models. School choice enjoys broad support across party lines, with 73% of Democrats and 67% of Republicans saying they support Education Savings Accounts. Support for school vouchers sits at 68% of Republicans and 58% of Democrats. Among parents specifically, 3 in 4 say they support voucher programs.
Giving parents and students choices in education sparks new opportunities and forces public schools to keep up with the competition, providing a reason to refocus on education and give up ideology.
