Study Finds Parents Do Not Support their Children Becoming Educators

The 54th annual PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools finds that only 37% of respondents would like for their children to become teachers in their community, despite a record-high approval of their local public schools. Of all adults surveyed, 54% rate their schools as A or B, an increase of 10% over the 2019 results. In keeping with previous years, parents of school children rate schools higher than the adult population at large. Both groups rate their local schools higher than they rate the nation’s schools as a whole. The majority of parents trust teachers to handle hot topics such as US history, civics, racism, and media literacy. However, both parents and the greater adult population have a lower level of trust with respect to teaching about sexuality and gender identity. The reported trust in teachers broken down by political affiliation results in a general trust level at 73% among Democrats and 60% for independents and Republicans.

Read the PDK Poll here.