Americans are more pessimistic than optimistic about many aspects of the country’s future
63% of Americans are pessimistic about the country’s moral and ethical standards, and 59% are pessimistic about its education system.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
63% of Americans are pessimistic about the country’s moral and ethical standards, and 59% are pessimistic about its education system.
Workplace diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, or DEI, are increasingly becoming part of national political debates. For a majority of employed U.S. adults (56%), focusing on increasing DEI at work is a good thing. But relatively small shares of workers place a lot of importance on diversity at their workplace.
Half of U.S. adults say they disapprove of selective colleges and universities taking prospective students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds into account when making admissions decisions. 33% approve of colleges considering race and ethnicity to increase diversity at the schools, while 16% are not sure.
Black Americans are critical of key aspects of policing and criminal justice. But their views on face recognition technology are more nuanced.
Republican and Democratic parents differ widely over what their children should learn at school about gender identity, slavery and other topics, but they are equally satisfied with the quality of education their children are receiving.
Hispanic enrollment at postsecondary institutions in the U.S. has risen from 1.5 million in 2000 to a new high of 3.8 million in 2019.
About half of Asian adults who have heard of affirmative action (53%) say it is a good thing, 19% say it is a bad thing, and 27% say they don’t know whether it is good or bad. However, about three-quarters of all Asian adults (76%) say race or ethnicity should not factor into college admissions decisions.
More than nine-in-ten Americans (93%) say high school grades should be at least a minor factor in admissions decisions.
In 2018-19, 79% of White elementary and secondary public school students went to schools where at least half of their peers were also White.
While views of and experiences with police vary substantially across demographic groups, there is support for a number of police reforms.
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