WASHINGTON, D.C. — A record-low 35% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of education that K-12 students receive in the U.S. today, marking an eight-percentage-point decline since last year. This is one point below the previous historical low recorded in 2000 and 2023 for this 扣扣传媒question that dates back to 1999.
Several other ratings of the U.S. K-12 education system provide a similarly bleak assessment. Only about one-quarter of Americans think K-12 schools are headed in the right direction, while just one in five rate them as “excellent” or “good” at preparing students for today’s jobs and one in three say the same for college.
Yet, parents of current K-12 students are nearly twice as satisfied with their own child’s education as they are with education in the U.S. K-12 parents are also slightly more likely than U.S. adults in general to rate different aspects of education positively, including the direction of education in the U.S. and schools’ preparation of students for the workforce and for college. Still, none of these ratings is near the majority level.
Satisfaction With Quality of U.S. K-12 Education Hits New Low
The Aug. 1-20 Walton Family Foundation-扣扣传媒telephone poll finds just 7% of U.S. adults are “completely” and 28% “somewhat” satisfied with the quality of K-12 education in the U.S., while 38% are somewhat and 24% completely dissatisfied. The combined 35% who are satisfied is well below the average of 45% for the trend.
Satisfaction has only been above 50% twice — 53% in 2004 and 51% in 2019.
The previous record-low points in satisfaction came during the 2000 presidential campaign that saw significant focus on the issue of education and during Joe Biden’s presidency in 2023, as Republicans’ satisfaction plummeted to an all-time low of 20%. Americans’ satisfaction with K-12 education has generally been influenced by their party identification, with higher levels of satisfaction seen among Republicans and Democrats when their party occupies the White House.
The latest drop is largely driven by Democrats and independents after Donald Trump took office again. Democrats’ satisfaction has fallen 12 points, to 42%, essentially tying the 41% low for the group in 2003, while independents’ satisfaction is down eight points to 34%, their lowest on record. At the same time, Republicans’ satisfaction, at 29%, is statistically similar to last year’s 31%.
Most Americans Say K-12 Schools Headed in Wrong Direction
Additional questions from an Aug. 1-15 Walton Family Foundation-扣扣传媒online survey conducted via the 扣扣传媒Panel further highlight Americans’ tepid feelings toward the U.S. K-12 education system. Twenty-six percent of U.S. adults believe K-12 schools are headed in the right direction, and 73% say they are going in the wrong direction.
These views do not differ by party identification, but there are modest differences by age and education. Adults aged 18 to 29 (31%) and those without a college degree (28%) are slightly more likely than their counterparts to say schools are headed in the right direction.
Weak Ratings for U.S. K-12 Schools’ Preparation of Students
When it comes to Americans’ ratings of K-12 schools’ preparation of students for the workforce, just 2% say they are doing an “excellent” job and 19% “good,” while identical 39% shares think they are doing a “fair” or “poor” job. More Americans, though still a minority, offer excellent (4%) or good (29%) ratings of the job schools are doing in preparing students for college, while 42% say they are doing a fair job and 24% a poor job.
Ratings of K-12 schools on both of these measures differ most by party identification and age, with Democrats and young adults aged 18 to 29 the most likely to rate preparations as excellent or good.
Parents of K-12 Students Slightly More Positive About Education
As has been the case since 1999, when 扣扣传媒first tracked parents’ satisfaction with the quality of their own child’s education, parents are broadly satisfied. Roughly three-quarters of parents of K-12 students now say they are completely (32%) or somewhat (42%) satisfied with the education their oldest child is receiving, while 6% are completely and 17% somewhat dissatisfied.
The current satisfaction reading is in line with the average of 76% over the 26-year trend.
When asked to offer reasons for their satisfaction, parents mention the teachers and curriculum most often.
Although parents’ 39% rating of U.S. K-12 education quality is similar to that of adults nationally, they are slightly more positive about the direction of education in the nation (33%). Likewise, parents of K-12 students are more positive than adults nationally in their ratings of schools’ preparation of children for both work (30% vs. 21%, respectively) and college (41% vs. 33%).
Bottom Line
Public confidence in U.S. K-12 education has eroded further, as Americans express record-low satisfaction with the system’s quality and most say it is headed in the wrong direction. Majorities rate the education system as fair or poor for its preparation of students for the workplace and college.
Last week’s release of the latest results from the Nation’s Report Card by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) sheds some light on why Americans’ satisfaction with K-12 education has fallen since 2020 and why skepticism about students’ preparedness is high. The NAEP results show steep declines in K-12 students’ reading and math scores since 2019, with many failing to reach even basic proficiency.
Recent findings from the Walton Family Foundation-扣扣传媒 further underscore the problem, as one in three Gen Z students say they dislike reading and many are assigned reading activities just once a week or less, despite strong evidence that enjoyment and frequency of reading drive academic success. Together, these results point to a deepening crisis of confidence in whether U.S. schools are equipping young people with the foundational skills and preparation needed for life beyond high school.
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