Is There a Way Forward for U.S. Public Schools? What We Learned from Our September Pulse Poll
The results are in from our September poll — An Eye on the U.S. Education Climate.
Here are the primary takeaways:
• 3 out of 4 mothers in our poll send their children to public schools (74%).
•Of mothers who send their children to public school, about 75% agree, regardless of political affiliation, that it fosters an emotionally supportive and physically safe environment.
• While 75% of all mothers trust the teachers in their district public schools to help kids reach successful educational outcomes, fewer (65%) believe public school administrators will ensure successful educational outcomes.
• About 40% of mothers who send their kids to public school would change their school type if they could.
• Of mothers who would switch out of public school, almost half said the most important problem to solve in their school is bullying and safety.
Survey responders can also earn raffle tickets for prizes. Let us know in the comment section if you took the pulse poll and you’d like a raffle ticket. We’ll announce the winner here at the beginning of November!
Take the October Pulse Poll (Update: The poll is now closed)
This month you can win a pair of PJs from The Cat’s Pajamas and a high chair from Lalo.
We love Lalo because they support paid family leave. Our August 2023 report showed mothers across the political spectrum believe the federal government should fund leave up to 12 weeks for the caregiving of a loved one. Also, they make products that are safe and non-toxic. Their High Chair is a bestseller — it has a 3-in-1 design that allows you to go from high chair to booster seat to play chair with easy add-ons.
We love The Cat’s Pajamas because they’re owned by a husband and wife team who are deeply committed to reducing the company’s carbon footprint. Not to mention, they are the best-feeling sleepwear and exceptionally well-made. Our June 2024 report showed stress as one of the biggest obstacles to your life as a mother, so we hope this goodie will give you some relief.
We’re dying to know which brands YOU love — have you found brands with products you love, who are doing the hard work to prioritize the health and safety of families?
So, let’s take a look at the September 2024 Report. A recent ProPublica/New Yorker article reported that enrollment in public schools has decreased by approximately one million students since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that about 50 million students attend U.S. public schools, that means 2% of the public school population left — and for the most part those kids have not returned. We wanted to find out what concerns mothers have with the school system that could be driving this change. So we polled nearly 700 moms from a representative sample across the U.S. and political spectrum for more insight.
We found that most mothers trust in the public school system, most trust their teachers will deliver positive academic outcomes, and most trust their school administrators will ensure educational success. But about 40% of mothers who send their children to public school would switch if they could, largely due to concerns about bullying and safety, but also due to academics and inadequate funding. As such, we believe the most pressing challenge for the school system is to focus on emotional and physical safety, as well as academics and adequate funding.
When looking at our survey results with an eye on the factors that might account for the drop in enrollment in American public schools, we looked at variables among our poll-taking mothers such as political affiliation, ethnicity, number of children, and level of education. Of the 669 Mothers we polled, 14.5% identified as very conservative, 17.2% identified as conservative, 34.2% identified as moderate, 19.9% identified as liberal, 12.4% identified as very liberal, and 1.8% identified as other.
3 out of 4 mothers send their children to public school, followed by homeschooling (8%), then private schools (6%). Almost 6% go to charter schools, while slightly more than 1% attend parochial schools. Number of children and education level had an impact on what type of school moms chose for their children, but race/ethnicity and political affiliation were not shown to statistically impact the distribution of school type.
41% of parents who send their children to public school would change that if possible. By comparison, a lower percentage of those who send their kids to parochial school (13%), private school (18%), charter school (26%), and home school (27%) would choose to change school type if they could. So what might be driving that difference?
Across all demographics, almost four in ten moms who responded to the open-ended question about the most important problem to solve in public schools mentioned the overlapping issues of bullying and safety. When it comes to the public school system, mothers worry, above all else, about both the physical and emotional security of their children.
Mothers who send their children to charter (95%), parochial (100%), and private schools (90%) more often agree/strongly agree that their school fosters a safe and supportive environment compared to mothers who send to public schools (74%).
One moderate mother from New York lamented the lack of support for the “emotional well being” of the students in her school district. “It’s like [our district] encourages and promotes drama among students and not enough support when issues such as bullying occur. I feel that parents and children have to fight the system in order for those at the top to give a damn about the students in their districts.”
75% of mothers trust the teachers in their public schools to help their child(ren) reach successful academic outcomes, while only 65% of mothers surveyed agree/strongly agree that they trust the public school administrators (principal, assistant principal, superintendent) in their district to ensure successful educational outcomes. These rates were consistent across political affiliations except for very liberal moms, who were much more likely to express high levels of trust — 84% for teachers and 78% for administrators. Race was also statistically significant when analyzing level of trust for administrators, but was not significant with regards to trust in teachers.
“I trust [teachers] will try,” said a moderate mother in Oregon. “But they are overworked and understaffed and underfunded. And people don’t respect teachers anymore.”
“It just seems like the administration’s focus is the forest, not the trees,” said one liberal mom from Georgia. “When you meet with them for an issue, they don’t know the kids, they can’t peel their eyes of their computer, everything is testing and percentiles and data points and district standards.”
The physical safety of children is a concern as well, not just keeping them safe from bullying. “Gun safety is concerning to me while my child is at school,” one liberal mom from New York told us. “They’ve spent lots of money and effort in improving security, and I don’t suspect there is a better way for it to be dealt with short of national regulations. However, I’d prefer to see those resources supporting the educators and kids.”
This speaks to another major issue almost 10% of mothers mentioned — funding.
“They simply don't have the funds to do everything they wish they could,” one very liberal mother in Arizona stated simply.
A conservative mom from Washington agreed. “Kids are slipping through the cracks in their classes and issues are not being addressed due to class size. [We] need more schools and more teachers/assistants.”
The other major issue mentioned in over 9% of responses was academics, theoretically the entire purpose of schooling. A moderate mother in California expressed her concern that there is “too much teaching to the test rather than teaching to 21st century innovation, collaboration, and careers.”
Academic concerns also pair with concerns for the emotional well-being of the kids for one moderate mother in Illinois. “They don't care about them struggling and just want to keep pushing them to the next grade,” she said.
The big takeaway here, however, is that most American mothers value the US public education system— they trust public school teachers and administrators, and believe their public school fosters a safe and supportive environment. The results of the poll show a clear possibility for a path forward, a way to strengthen American public schools rather than abandoning them.
