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
Republican and Democratic parents have widely different views of what their K-12 children should learn about certain topics in school
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