Education

63% of Americans are pessimistic about the country’s moral and ethical standards, and 59% are pessimistic about its education system.

School has started in most of the United States. On average, K-12 public schools will be in session close to 180 days this year.

Most K-12 students at U.S. public schools have a school year of about 180 days, but when that year starts and ends varies substantially by region.

Public K-12 schools in the United States educate about 7.3 million students with disabilities – a number that has grown over the last few decades.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to limit affirmative action in higher education is likely to have the biggest impact on a relatively small group of schools.

Here’s a closer look at what recent surveys have found about Americans’ views of affirmative action.

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.

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.

The public is sharply divided along partisan lines on topics ranging from what should be taught in schools to how much influence parents should have over the curriculum.

Around a third of U.S. school districts mention the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in their mission statements. But these references are far more common in parts of the country won by Joe Biden in 2020 than in areas won by Donald Trump.