Growing share of Americans say the U.S. higher education system is headed in the wrong direction
In both parties, the share that say the higher education system is going in the wrong direction has gone up by at least 10 percentage points since 2020.
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In both parties, the share that say the higher education system is going in the wrong direction has gone up by at least 10 percentage points since 2020.
The Education Department is the main conduit for federal aid to public K-12 schools and a major lender to college students.
Here are key facts about the 3.8 million public school teachers who work in America’s classrooms and how they view their jobs.
Amid shifts in demographics and partisan allegiances, registered voters are now evenly split between the Democratic Party and the GOP.
Public K-12 teachers express low job satisfaction and few are optimistic about the future of U.S. education.
68% of U.S. adults who voted in the 2020 presidential election turned out to vote in the 2022 midterms. Former President Donald Trump’s voters turned out at a higher rate in 2022 (71%) than did President Joe Biden’s voters (67%).
Half of U.S. adults say they disapprove of selective colleges and universities taking prospective students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds into account when making admissions decisions. 33% approve of colleges considering race and ethnicity to increase diversity at the schools, while 16% are not sure.
The public is sharply divided along partisan lines on topics ranging from what should be taught in schools to how much influence parents should have over the curriculum.
Around a third of U.S. school districts mention the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in their mission statements. But these references are far more common in parts of the country won by Joe Biden in 2020 than in areas won by Donald Trump.
52% of Republicans say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in K-12 public school principals to act in the public’s best interests.
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