Last week, EdChoice released its annual Schooling in America survey. Over the past decade, we have asked a representative sample of Americans a series of questions about the American education system. Each year gives us the opportunity to see what Americans think about their country’s schools. It also gives you an opportunity to see how opinions have changed over time.

I can’t justify every finding, but here are five that stood out to me.

General opinion about education does not change much.

The survey asks Americans whether they believe the education system is heading in the right direction or is heading in the wrong direction. Looking at responses over the past decade, we don’t see much change. In 2013, 62% of her Americans thought the education system was headed in the wrong direction, and 26% thought it was headed in the right direction. By 2022, 61% went wrong and 34% went right. Asking parents specifically yields similar results. In 2014, 54% of parents thought their school was on the wrong track and 40% thought it was on the right track. By 2022, 52% went wrong and 48% went right. There were his two presidential elections, the pandemic hit, the Royals won the World Series, and many other unforeseen events during that period, but opinions about schools barely moved. .

My opinion on school choice policy has changed.

In the first four years of the study (2013-2016), support for education savings accounts, tax credit scholarships, vouchers, and charter schools all declined among the general population. At first, the approval rating was 60-66 percent, but during that time the approval rating dropped to 52-59 percent. However, there has been a significant increase since then. At the peak of school choice support in 2020, 81% of Americans said they would support education savings accounts, 74% said they would support tuition tax credits, 73% said they would support vouchers, and 72% said they would support charter schools. said to support These numbers are down slightly, but education savings accounts are up 12 points from 2013, tax credits are up 5 points, vouchers are up 9 points, and charter schools are up 6 points.

People don’t know how much we spend on school.

A 2022 survey found that 71% of Americans and 81% of school parents underestimate how much their local public schools spend. Respondents were asked to estimate how much their local public school would spend and then use their locations to compare their estimates to the actual amounts. While the median general population response was $8,000 per student and the median parent response was $5,000, the actual figures ranged from $8,287 to $25,273 depending on location.

Most parents are happy with their child’s school, but quite a few are dissatisfied.

Summing up, parents who said they were “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with their child’s school were 69% of public school parents, 72% of charter school parents, and 78% of private school parents. , and homeschooled parents are satisfied with their children’s schooling. Leaving aside that “somewhat satisfied” does not necessarily indicate clear endorsement, the fact that 31% of public school parents are “extremely” or “somewhat” dissatisfied is not surprising. , is true for many people. Perhaps more than 10 million parents are dissatisfied with their child’s school.

Different parents want different things from schools.

We asked parents of traditional public, charter, private and homeschooled parents about their top three reasons for choosing a school or learning environment. Traditional public school parents prioritized proximity to home and work, quality of studies, and the fact that they were assigned to a school. Charter parents prioritized academic quality, safety, and structure and discipline (related to class size). The top three for private school parents were academic quality, safety and moral education. Homeschooling parents led safety and one-on-one attention and academic quality.

Some of these findings are surprising. The fact that opinions about the general direction of education seem immune to all external events was not what I expected. Although Americans have a strong desire to know where and how their tax dollars are spent, they are often unaware of how much money is being spent on schools. I was also surprised.

But others are not. We are in a large and diverse country, so don’t be surprised that different parents have different priorities when choosing a school for their child. So you shouldn’t be shocked by the growing popularity of school choice. It must have influenced schooling preferences. The school’s response to the pandemic may have played a similar role.

It will be interesting to follow these trends in the future. I can only imagine what it will look like in 10 years.