WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As U.S. schoolchildren begin a new academic year, Americans’ satisfaction with the quality of K-12 education is up seven percentage points to 43% from last year’s low point. While this is a marked improvement in the percentage of U.S. adults who say they are completely or somewhat satisfied, the majority, 55%, continue to say they are completely or somewhat dissatisfied.
Gallup has tracked this measure annually since 1999. The latest findings, from an Aug. 1-20 poll, show Americans’ satisfaction with the quality of education that K-12 students receive is close to the trend average of 45%.
Currently, 9% of Americans say they are completely satisfied with the quality of education U.S. students in kindergarten through grade 12 receive, and 34% are somewhat satisfied. Conversely, 21% are completely dissatisfied and 34% somewhat dissatisfied.
The recent increase in satisfaction on this measure is seen across most major demographic subgroups, including Republicans and Republican-leaning independents and Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.
Republicans’ satisfaction with the quality of K-12 education, which was at its record low last year, has risen eight percentage points to 33%, while Democrats’ is up nine points to 53%. The 20-point satisfaction gap between Democrats and Republicans is the largest of the demographic subgroups.
K-12 Parents’ Satisfaction Diminished
Satisfaction with the quality of K-12 education in the U.S. among parents of K-12 students is in line with that of U.S. adults nationally, as 44% say they are completely or somewhat satisfied, and 55% are completely or somewhat dissatisfied. Unlike all adults, K-12 parents’ satisfaction has not improved much in the past year.
As has consistently been the case over the past 25 years, parents of school-aged children are much more likely to express satisfaction with the quality of their own child’s education than the U.S. education system overall. The latest poll finds seven in 10 parents of K-12 students say they are completely (31%) or somewhat (39%) satisfied with the education their oldest child is receiving, and about three in 10 are completely (9%) or somewhat (20%) dissatisfied.
The 70% of parents who are now satisfied with their child’s education is below the 76% trend average since 2001. Parents’ satisfaction has fallen 10 points over the past two years.
Parent Safety Concerns Are Elevated
Another question in the poll finds 44% of U.S. adults with a child in kindergarten through grade 12 saying they fear for their oldest child's personal safety at school. This reading matches the recent high recorded in 2022, three months after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Historically, parents’ fear about their children’s safety while at school has risen in the wake of other high-profile school shootings, including those at Columbine High School in 1999, Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
Bottom Line
At the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, a majority of Americans remain dissatisfied with the quality of K-12 education in the U.S., although satisfaction has risen slightly over the past year. While a slim majority of Democrats are satisfied with the nation’s education quality, only one in three Republicans are.
Parents of K-12 students are much more satisfied with their child’s education than with the nation’s system. However, parents’ satisfaction with their own child’s education has declined significantly over the past two years. At the same time, parents’ fear about their children’s physical safety at school is holding at one of the highest levels seen in the trend, exceeded only by fear levels following one of the earliest mass school shootings a quarter century ago.
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