Parents Differ Sharply by Political Party Over What Their K-12 Children Should Learn in School | By The Perfect Enemy

As the midterm election approaches, issues related to K-12 schools have become deeply polarized. A new Pew Research Center survey of parents with children in K-12 schools shows that Republican and Democratic parents have widely different views on what their children should learn at school about gender identity, slavery and other topics. They also offer different assessments of the influence parents, local school boards and other key players have on what public K-12 schools in their area are teaching.

Republican parents with children in K-12 schools are about twice as likely as Democratic parents to say parents don’t have enough influence (44% vs. 23%, including those who lean to each party). And Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say school boards have too much influence (30% vs. 17%). These parents also differ over the amount of input they personally have when it comes to what their own children are learning in school.

At the same time, Republican and Democratic parents – including those with children in public schools – are equally likely to say they are extremely or very satisfied with the quality of the education their children are receiving (58% each) and that the teachers and administrators at their children’s schools have values that are similar to their own (54% each). Overall, 57% of parents of K-12 children express high levels of satisfaction with the quality of their children’s education, even as fewer than half (40%) say they are similarly satisfied with the amount of input they have in what their children learn in school.

When it comes to what their children are learning in school, U.S. parents of K-12 students are divided over what they think their children should learn about gender identity: 31% say they would prefer that their children learn that whether someone is a boy or a girl is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth, and the same share say they’d rather their children learn that someone can be a boy or a girl even if that’s different from their sex at birth. A 37% plurality say their children shouldn’t learn about this in school.

There is also no consensus when it comes to what parents want their children to learn about slavery: 49% say they would prefer that their children learn that the legacy of slavery still affects the position of Black people in American society today, while a smaller but sizable share (42%) would prefer that their children learn that slavery is part of American history but doesn’t affect the position of Black people in American society today.

Parents of K-12 students have mixed views about whether public school teachers should be allowed to lead students in prayer. About half of parents (52%) say this shouldn’t be allowed in any form, while 27% say leading students in Christian prayers should only be allowed if prayers from other religions are also offered and 19% say it should be allowed even if prayers from other religions are not offered. Among Democratic parents, 63% say public school teachers shouldn’t be allowed to lead students in any type of prayers; 39% of Republican parents say the same.

In addition to the report, Pew Research Center today released a new analysis exploring how parents of K-12 students assess the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their children’s education and emotional well-being. New findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress add to mounting evidence that remote learning in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic created gaps in learning that had a lasting impact on K-12 students in the U.S., and these findings are echoed in the Center’s analysis: About six-in-ten K‑12 parents (61%) say the first year of the pandemic had a negative effect on their children’s education. Among that group of parents, 44% say this is still the case today, while 56% say the impact was only temporary. Click here to read the Center’s full analysis.

Additional key findings from the nationally representative survey of 3,251 U.S. parents with children in K-12 schools, conducted Sept. 20 to Oct. 2, 2022: 

On both gender identity and the legacy of slavery, there are differences ranging from 23 to 46 percentage points in what Republican and Democratic parents of K-12 students would prefer that their children learn in school. There are also large partisan differences when it comes to what parents want their K-12 children to learn about sex education and America’s standing in the world.

About eight-in-ten parents answering about a student in a private K-12 school (79%) say they are extremely or very satisfied with the quality of the education their child is receiving, compared with 55% of those answering about a child in a public school. About two-thirds of upper-income parents (66%) express high levels of satisfaction, compared with 58% of those with middle incomes and a smaller share of those with lower incomes (52%). The difference between upper- and lower-income parents remains when looking only at those answering about a child in public school. (Note: the sample size for parents answering about private school children is too small to analyze separately; this survey was not designed to be representative of all parents with children in public or private schools).

One-in-five parents of K-12 students say their children’s school doesn’t spend enough time on core academic subjects like reading, math, science and social studies. The shares saying this are higher among fathers (24%) than mothers (17%) and among Republican and Republican-leaning parents (23%) than those who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (17%). But majorities of 70% or more say their children’s school spends about the right amount of time on these subjects.

About two-thirds of parents say it is extremely or very important to them that their children’s school teaches them to develop social and emotional skills. Parents of elementary school students (69%) are more likely than parents of high school students (59%) to say it’s at least very important to them that their children’s school teaches these skills (64% of parents of middle schoolers say the same). And while majorities of Democratic and Republican parents say this is extremely or very important to them, this is a more common view among Democrats (74% vs. 57% of Republican parents).

Read the full report: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/10/26/parents-differ-sharply-by-party-over-what-their-k-12-children-should-learn-in-school/

Methodology: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/10/26/parents-k-12-methodology/

#Black, #Children, #Coronavirus

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Published on The Perfect Enemy at https://bit.ly/3DmiovQ.