Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Read our research on:
Parents Differ Sharply by Party Over What Their K-12 Children Should Learn in School
White, Asian and Democratic parents are the most likely to say public school teachers should not be allowed to lead students in any type of prayers
Embed
Infographic Gallery
- Parents Differ Sharply by Party Over What Their K-12 Children Should Learn in School
- Republican parents are more likely than Democrats to say that parents have too little influence on what kids learn in school and school boards have too much
- Republican and Democratic parents have widely different views of what their K-12 children should learn about certain topics in school
- Parents offer different assessments of the influence of government, school boards, parents, teachers, students and principals on what schools are teaching
- A majority of parents of K-12 students are extremely or very satisfied with the quality of the education their children are receiving
- Democratic parents are more likely than Republican parents to express high levels of satisfaction with how much say they have in what their children learn
- Most parents of K-12 students say their children’s school spends the right amount of time on core academic subjects
- Majorities of Democratic and Republican K-12 parents say it’s very or extremely important to them that their children learn social, emotional skills at school
- Views on what children should learn about gender identity in school differ by gender among Republicans and by race and ethnicity among Democrats
- Views about what children should learn about slavery vary widely by race and ethnicity, party
- A majority of parents would prefer that their children learn that abstinence is not the only safe and effective method of contraception
- Most Democratic parents and about half of Republican ones would prefer their children learn that some countries are as good as or better than the U.S.
- White, Asian and Democratic parents are the most likely to say public school teachers should not be allowed to lead students in any type of prayers
- About four-in-ten White evangelical parents say public school teachers should be allowed to lead students in Christian prayers even if no other prayers offered
- About half of parents say the teachers, administrators at their children’s school share their values
- Republican and Democratic parents have different views of the influence government, school boards, parents and teachers have on what schools teach