• Strong participation and baseline trust in public schools:
  About 74% of mothers send their children to public schools, and majorities report trust in teachers (75%) and administrators (65%), as well as confidence that schools provide a physically safe and emotionally supportive environment.
• Bullying and safety are the dominant concerns:
  While overall sentiment is positive, 36% of mothers cite bullying or safety as a key concern, rising to 46% among mothers with children currently in public schools, making it the most frequently cited issue.
• Interest in switching schools extends across school types:
  About 40% of public school mothers would consider leaving if given the option, but notable shares of private (~20%) and charter or homeschool mothers (~27%) also report interest in switching—indicating dissatisfaction is not limited to public schools.
• Different concerns drive dissatisfaction:
  Mothers seeking to leave public schools most often cite bullying and safety, while mothers already outside the public school system are more likely to point to academic quality and funding.
• Clear priorities for improvement:
  Across open-ended responses, mothers consistently identified bullying, safety, inadequate funding, and academic quality as the most important problems to address, underscoring the need for stronger school climate initiatives, clearer accountability, and improved communication with families.

In September 2024, Count on Mothers surveyed 669 mothers across 46 states and the political spectrum to understand their views and firsthand experiences with public schools. The study examined school enrollment patterns, levels of trust and satisfaction, interest in switching school types, and the factors driving declines in public school enrollment. Findings highlight strong overall participation in and trust toward public schools, alongside persistent concerns—particularly related to bullying, safety, and accountability.

This report focuses on information Count on Mothers collected in September 2024 on mothers’ views and firsthand experiences in regard to their district public school. We compiled the results to find out the proportion of mothers who send their children to public, private, home, or charter schools, whether they would leave their chosen school if they had the option, and their sentiment around their district public school. In addition, we looked at the potential reasons public school enrollment has dropped over the past five years – specifically, the main problems mothers had who would leave public school if they had the option, and the main problems mothers had with public school who opted for private, charter, or home. A total of 669 Mothers residing in 46 states and from across the political spectrum provided feedback based on their first-hand knowledge. Regarding the political background of the survey respondents, the sample closely reflects the U.S. breakdown of political ideology among women according to Gallup. 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.  After analyzing Mothers’ opinions from the survey, we take this aggregate data and share it with policymakers and the public so they are educated on Mothers’ firsthand experiences.