Townhall has covered how polls have shown Americans' concerns about what children are learning in school and the quality of education they've received since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A federal report showed that children suffered immense learning loss in subjects like math due to lockdowns. This week, a new poll found Americans' overall satisfaction levels with K-12 education in the United States is at a record low.
Gallup’s latest Work and Education survey, taken annually, was released Thursday. It was conducted from Aug. 1 through 23.
According to the findings, Americans’ satisfaction with the quality of K-12 education in the U.S. has fallen six percentage points in the past year to match the record-low rating of 36 percent. Gallup has tracked this figure annually for 24 years.
When K-12 parents were surveyed, 76 percent said they were satisfied with their oldest child’s education. Ten years ago, this figure was 67 percent (via Gallup):
Since 1999, when Gallup started asking these two questions every August, there has been a consistent, significant gap between parents' satisfaction with their child's education and Americans’ views of U.S. education in general, averaging 31 percentage points.
The latest readings, from an Aug. 1-23 poll, find that Americans’ overall satisfaction with the nation’s K-12 education quality is nine points below the 45% historical average for this metric. At the same time, parents’ satisfaction with the quality of their school-aged child’s education matches the historical average for the measure.
All told, 35% of parents of K-12 students are “completely satisfied” with their child’s education, 41% are “somewhat satisfied,” 12% are “somewhat dissatisfied” and 9% “completely dissatisfied.” Meanwhile, 8% of Americans are completely satisfied with K-12 education nationally, 28% are somewhat satisfied, 38% somewhat dissatisfied and 25% completely dissatisfied.
"Americans’ satisfaction with the quality of K-12 education in the U.S. has fallen to a record low point as a new school year begins. Both party groups are at or near record-low satisfaction levels, but Republicans are significantly less likely to be satisfied than Democrats are," Gallup's write-up noted.
Additionally, the poll from Gallup found that 38 percent of parents say they fear for their child’s safety ahead of the 2023-2024 school year. Last year, this figure was 44 percent. The highest measured by Gallup was 55 percent, right after the 1999 Columbine High School shooting.