---
title: "Republicans’ confidence in K-12 principals has fallen sharply during the pandemic"
description: "52% of Republicans say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in K-12 public school principals to act in the public’s best interests."
date: "2022-02-24"
authors:
  - name: "John Gramlich"
    job_title: "Associate Director, Short Reads"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/john-gramlich/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/02/24/republicans-confidence-in-k-12-principals-has-fallen-sharply-during-the-pandemic/"
categories:
  - "Coronavirus (COVID-19)"
  - "Education"
  - "Education & Politics"
---

# Republicans’ confidence in K-12 principals has fallen sharply during the pandemic

Amid high-profile debates over a range of K-12 school policies – from [mask mandates](https://www.edweek.org/leadership/should-masks-be-required-in-school-this-fall-inside-the-messy-confusing-debate/2021/07) to the [teaching of race-related issues](https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05) – a declining share of Republicans in the United States say they are confident in public school principals to act in the best interests of the public.

[![A line graph showing that confidence in K-12 principals has dropped during COVID-19, especially among Republicans](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/FT_22.02.18_K12Principals_1.png?w=420)](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/02/24/republicans-confidence-in-k-12-principals-has-fallen-sharply-during-the-pandemic/ft_22-02-18_k12principals_1-png/)

Around half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (52%) say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in K-12 public school principals to act in the public’s best interests, according to a [Pew Research Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/02/15/americans-trust-in-scientists-other-groups-declines/) conducted in December 2021. Nearly as many (47%) say they have not too much or no confidence at all in principals.

In April 2020, shortly after the beginning of the [coronavirus outbreak](https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/) in the U.S., Republicans’ attitudes about public school principals were much more positive. At the time, around eight-in-ten Republicans (79%) said they had a great deal or fair amount of confidence in principals to act in the best interests of the public, while 20% said they had not too much or no confidence.

This Pew Research Center analysis examines changing public attitudes about K-12 principals in the United States. It is based primarily on a survey of 14,497 U.S. adults conducted from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12, 2021. Everyone who took part in the survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the [ATP’s methodology](https://www.pewresearch.org/our-methods/u-s-surveys/the-american-trends-panel/).

Here is the [survey question used](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2022/02/PS_2022.02.15_trust-declines-TOPLINE.pdf) for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey’s [methodology](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/02/15/trust-in-scientists-declines-methodology/).

Other parts of this analysis are based on additional surveys by Pew Research Center and The Washington Post/ABC News. Links to these surveys – including their field dates, sample sizes and methodologies – are included in the text of the post.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have also become less likely to express confidence in school principals during the pandemic, but the drop-off has not been nearly as steep as among Republicans – and a large majority of Democrats still voice confidence. As of December 2021, around three-quarters of Democrats (76%) say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in principals, down from 87% in April 2020.

Overall, 64% of U.S. adults say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in K-12 principals to act in the best interests of the public, down from 83% in April 2020. Public confidence in a number of other societal groups and institutions [has also waned](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/02/15/americans-trust-in-scientists-other-groups-declines/) during the pandemic, with especially notable decreases among Republicans.

[![A bar chart showing that in 2021, most Republicans said K-12 public schools were having a negative effect on the U.S.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/FT_22.02.18_K12Principals_2.png?w=310)](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/02/24/republicans-confidence-in-k-12-principals-has-fallen-sharply-during-the-pandemic/ft_22-02-18_k12principals_2-png/)

GOP criticism of public schools is not limited to principals, a [July 2021 Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/08/20/republicans-increasingly-critical-of-several-major-u-s-institutions-including-big-corporations-and-banks/) found. In that survey, a majority of Republicans (57%) said K-12 public schools overall were having a negative effect on the way things were going in the country. Around three-quarters of Democrats (77%) said K-12 schools were having a *positive* effect. That survey, too, found growing GOP negativity about a range of societal institutions, including banks and financial institutions, large corporations, tech companies and labor unions.

So what’s driving the growing partisan polarization around K-12 schools? Surveys by the Center and other polling organizations indicate that pandemic-related changes to school policies, as well as recent debates over school curriculums, may be playing a role.

In March 2020, when the coronavirus outbreak first struck the U.S., the vast majority of Republicans (85%) and Democrats (94%) said closing K-12 schools was a [necessary step](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/04/07/polling-shows-signs-of-public-trust-in-institutions-amid-pandemic/). But as the pandemic has continued, partisan disagreements about school closures have become more pointed.

In a [survey this past January](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/02/04/academic-emotional-concerns-outweigh-covid-19-risks-in-parents-views-about-keeping-schools-open/) – when the omicron variant [was spreading rapidly](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-reports-least-11-mln-covid-cases-day-shattering-global-record-2022-01-11/) and some schools were again [closing their doors](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/12/21/omicron-variant-school-closures-covid-surges/8969707002/) – Republican K-12 parents were much more likely than Democratic parents (55% vs. 26%) to favor schools providing in-person only instruction. Democratic parents were more likely than Republican ones (64% vs. 39%) to favor a mix of in-person and online instruction.

[![A chart showing that there are wide partisan gaps in whether health risks to students and teachers should be major factors in deciding whether to keep K-12 schools open this winter](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ft_2022.02.04_schools_02.png?w=420)](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/02/04/academic-emotional-concerns-outweigh-covid-19-risks-in-parents-views-about-keeping-schools-open/ft_2022-02-04_schools_02/)

In the same survey, Republican and Democratic parents also differed over the factors that should be given a lot of consideration when deciding whether to keep K-12 schools open for in-person instruction. GOP parents were more likely than Democratic parents to say a lot of consideration should be given to students’ academic progress and their emotional well-being, while Democratic parents were more likely than Republicans to say a lot of consideration should be given to the risks that the coronavirus posed to students and teachers.

Mask mandates have also [been a flashpoint](https://abcnews.go.com/US/school-board-meetings-emotional-battlegrounds-debating-mask-mandates/story?id=79657733) in some school districts. While Pew Research Center has not recently polled about mask mandates in schools, there have long been [wide partisan divides](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/10/29/both-republicans-and-democrats-cite-masks-as-a-negative-effect-of-covid-19-but-for-very-different-reasons/) in views of masking more generally. This past January, Republicans were 40 percentage points less likely than Democrats (39% vs. 79%) to say they had worn a mask or face covering in stores and other businesses [all or most of the time](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/02/09/covid-19-response-appendix/) in the prior month.

Debates over school curriculums may be having an effect on Republicans’ satisfaction with public schools as well.

In a [Washington Post/ABC News survey](https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/nov-7-10-2021-washington-post-abc-news-poll/160508a9-cea2-4433-92c8-6dc51838721e/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2) in November 2021, seven-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents – compared with around a quarter of Democrats and Democratic leaners (26%) – said parents should [have a lot of say](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/123AzF_nPabL77PSLl7TY4r43PiCnI10dJ9NIuobYTF8/edit#gid=0) in what their child’s school teaches. Democrats were about twice as likely as Republicans (45% vs. 21%) to say parents should have *some* say in what their child’s school teaches.

While partisan differences over K-12 schools may have grown wider during the pandemic, Republicans and Democrats had disagreements over some aspects of public schooling well before the pandemic. In a [May 2019 survey by the Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/07/19/republicans-have-doubts-that-colleges-k-12-schools-are-open-to-range-of-viewpoints/), Republicans were less likely than Democrats to say K-12 schools were open to a wide range of opinions and viewpoints. Around half of Republicans (49%) said K-12 schools were very or somewhat open in this regard, compared with around seven-in-ten Democrats (71%).

Other survey questions related to K-12 schools have found no change in attitudes during the pandemic. In an [October 2021 Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2021/12/16/americans-are-less-likely-than-before-covid-19-to-want-to-live-in-cities-more-likely-to-prefer-suburbs/#rising-share-of-americans-say-availability-of-affordable-housing-is-a-major-problem-in-their-area), only around one-in-five adults (22%) said the quality of K-12 education in the public schools was a major problem in their local community, unchanged from 2018. In that survey, Republicans were slightly *less* likely than Democrats (19% vs. 23%) to say the quality of K-12 education was a major problem where they live.