Public school support wanes...kinda

The politicization of COVID mitigation rules and diverse curriculum has softened public confidence in schools. But, where is the alternative to the traditional system?

A few years ago, school reformers in my network wished for a big moment when Americans' nearly religious faith in public schools would confront the fact that public schooling is ruinous for millions of students.

I was among them before the COVID school closures. I was prone to saying, “these schools are so bad that for many kids, it would be better to send them home with an iPad and wish them luck."

Then, the pandemic.

Millions of school children, including three of mine, were suddenly at home, staring at screens for hours and watching their learning opportunities deteriorate as the nation's primary child care system struggled to educate children at a distance.

Frustrations ensued.

Public support for public schools drops

According to polls, the dream of a reckoning has arrived.

Support for public schools is at an "all-time low," says the Miami Herald.

"Americans' faith in public schools remains low after pandemic rally," says the Gallup organization.

Even in liberal Californian, only 21% of residents give their schools an A or B grade (down from 27% a decade ago). On the other hand, voters grading the schools with a D or F rose 15 percentage points from 13% to 28% between 2011 and the present.

And conversely, in Governor Ron DeSantis' conservative Florida, culture war attacks on the public schools resonate and reveal yet another well of simmering distrust for "government" schools.

Put it all together, and it looks like a public school smackdown.

A rightward decline

One noticeable ripple in the lowered esteem trend for public schools is that the decline in confidence is mainly partisan and driven by a segment of Americans that has long distrusted public schooling.

In 1973, remarkably, Republicans were slightly more confident about public schools than Democrats. Back then, 61% of GOPers expressed a "Great deal/Quite a lot of confidence" versus 60% of Democrats.

Since then, Democrat support fell 17 percentage points from 60% to 43%, which is worth noting, but the Republican support nosedived to just 14%. That's down from 34% just two years ago.

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And on the opposing end, between 2020 to 2022, the percentage of Republicans who say they have little or no confidence in public schools jumped from 26% to 50%.

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As a communications person, this tells me that using COVID mitigation efforts, CRT, and other progressive education ghosts as political intoxicants works to drive up negative opinion. Sadly, those issues won’t drive up student achievement.

The left better wake up too

To say that right-wing partisan politics drives frustration with the public schools in no way means the left is without a problem to contend with among its people too.

First, Democrat families - especially those in progressive cities with overly performative school boards - are among the disenchanted.

In Los Angeles, for instance, only 18% of voters give schools high marks, while 1 in 3 voters assign them a D or F rating.

Second, schools face climate change-like threats to their existence regarding eroding enrollment numbers and lowering budgets. The cry of "we just need more money" fails in light of the unprecedented avalanche of dollars President Biden's administration dumped on states with little accountability, money that has done too little to stem pandemic learning loss.

Finally, Democrats invest too much effort in defending public schools with anemic slogans rather than doing the hard work of making schools relevant to increasingly diverse families and communities.

Yes, some well-appointed public schools in suburban islands of privilege where the football fields and Advance Placement courses rival anything in the private market, but students at the top and bottom of the achievement distribution need more opportunities to succeed.

According to a 2017 PDK poll, “public schools don't command vast loyalty."

"If cost and location were not issues, just one-third of parents say they'd pick a traditional public school over a private school (31%), public charter school (17%), or a religious school (14%)."

Those numbers tell me public school support is situational. But, lucky for them, the situation is that there is no sizable competition capable of serving the number of young people that public schools serve.

Reformers beware

Okay, so public support is waning. Most parents would choose something different if they could.

Why isn't that the win of all wins for reformers?

I hate to send you a mixed message with this missive. But nuance and precision are essential here. While the decline in public esteem is authentic, I don't think it's the opportunity for reform that many of my wishful thinking education strategists say it is.

Translating partisan, temporary, and situational declines of positive marks for public schools into scalable alternatives that produce better results is one hell of a project.

Good luck with that.

The traditional public education system can be as mediocre as many of us say it is. Yet, it's the only one with the infrastructure, staffing, procedures, and resources to serve American youth in decent numbers.

Nearly 100,000 public schools serve 51,000,000 students.

Private schools serve 5,800,000 students.

Show me the place you will put 45,000,000 million students - the difference between those in two systems - and I'll show you an incredible illusion.

The importance of public schools is settled. We have red state politicians ironically campaigning on their record of getting kids back in schools faster than their blue state counterparts.

If that isn't a low-key endorsement of a tax-supported system that serves all kids when other systems can't, I don't know what is.

A few years ago, I supported various proposals to increase educational opportunities. That includes providing families with enough options so that every American kid finds a humane place to learn and grow. I still support that today, but, like most parents, I'd prefer one functioning school versus two in the bush.