Back to Educational Basics
We talked about this on KXEL Live & Local yesterday, but some of these findings deserve further conversation. Parents Defending Education commissioned a poll from CRC Research on how Americans feel about key issues tied to children in school. One thousand parents with children 18 or younger were surveyed in mid-December, and there is a real theme of “getting back to basics” desired by parents.
77 percent of parents support states having more flexibility on how their run their schools, as opposed to having things mandated by the federal government. A whopping 91 percent say school districts should be required to disclose when they accept money from foreign governments; that has led to some concerns about influence on curriculum in some places.
The concept of “gender at birth” also was surveyed…three quarters of parents oppose school officials withholding information from them as parents about their child’s gender identity, resistance to some policies that bar school officials from disclosing to parents if their own children are using a different gender identity at school.
78 percent of parents oppose biological males, who identify as females, being allowed to participate on girls’ sports teams…and 77 percent oppose biological males, who identify as females, from using female bathrooms and locker rooms—and vice versa.
And 90 percent of parents say focusing on core subject areas, such as math, reading, writing, science and social students, would improve the quality of public education. What’s really important about that there is no difference based on political affiliation or ethnicity—92 percent of Republicans, 91 percent of Democrats, and 88 percent of independents believe in this “back to basics” approach; so do 87 percent of whites, 91 percent of blacks, 100 percent of Asians, and 95 percent of Hispanics.
Again, this survey is of parents of minor children. So yet again, the parents have spoken. Who’s willing to listen?
