Substitute while the actions of the article are loading
Since President Biden took office on January 20, 2021, Fox News has talked about what is taught in schools more than 1,000 times. On average, there were 2.3 15-second such segments per day.
The network’s focus on schools before last year’s Virginia mayoral race was attributed either to capturing the mood of ordinary people that led to the election results (as Fox defenders put it) or to making noise that had the same effect. The survey found that voters in Virginia were suddenly much more concerned about education as the election approached – as Fox’s coverage increased. (It’s not really clear how important the issue was in electing Governor Glenn Youngkin (R), but that’s out of the question for this article.)
The conversation has shifted since then. Last year, the focus was on the race. This year, thanks in large part to legislation passed in Florida that bans discussions of “sexuality” in vague terms, it’s about LGBTQ Americans (although the race is still emerging). The Florida law was effective in drawing attention to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), and the discussion was accompanied by a backlash against visibility for same-sex couples.
Despite all the time and energy spent discussing these topics, and all the intonations of selected staff on how they respond to parental concerns in their areas or states, a new study by Ipsos on NPR reveals something interesting.
Most parents think that their children’s schools teach them what they should be.
Sign up for How to Read This Chart, a weekly newsletter with Philip Bump
We see many similar models in politics. People hate Congress, but they support their Congressman. People are worried about rising crime, but do not see rising crime in their neighborhoods. National calls can have the effect of setting national expectations that do not correspond to local experience. And in terms of education in the classroom, we seem to see a somewhat similar division.
The NPR-Ipsos survey raised two questions that arise at this time.
The first asked parents if they thought schools taught different subjects in ways that matched their personal values. For example, they were asked whether the schools their children attended taught US history in a way that was consistent with their own values. Most said they did.
The survey also asked about other topics, such as race and racism, the impact of slavery and racism, and sexuality and gender identity. In any case, more parents said they thought these things were taught according to their own values than they said they did not. These are the purple and orange stripes below, respectively. (In many cases, parents also said that they did not think that subjects were not taught at all, the gray bars.) In only one case was they more inclined to claim that a subject was not taught in a party subgroup of respondents. respecting their personal values more than it was: Republicans value how sexuality is taught.
This topic, sexuality, was one of two places where there was a statistically significant difference between the countries (indicated by a dotted line). The other was that Democrats were significantly less likely to say that schools teach patriotism in a way that does not conform to their values.
But notice these graphics for the race. Democrats and Republicans share the same view of how they feel about the way these issues are taught, and both groups generally agree with the way they are taught. It would be informative to know how parents would have answered this question last year, when race was at the center of this dispute. Would the values be the same? Or would they look more like sexuality now?
In other words, to what extent does the national conversation influence views on how sexuality is taught? Are Republicans more inclined to say that they are worried about how they are taught because of what they see in their children’s curricula, or because of what they hear in the conservative media? When the competition sparked protests last fall, it was a common claim that it was not caused by Fox News coverage, but by parents who saw what their children were learning during homework on the pandemic. Now, however, they don’t seem to care much.
Last year’s political debate was often shaped by the question of how much parents say in classroom learning. Democrat Youngkin, who was defeated in Virginia, has been repeatedly attacked (especially in the conservative media) for saying that parents should not run curricula. This has evolved since then, with concerns about what teachers are teaching growing into concerns about what information is available to children in general. Many schools facing parental pressure have removed books from school libraries that are considered controversial – often those dealing with same-sex or racial relationships.
This was the other interesting question asked by NPR and Ipsos. Most Americans believe that parents have the right to talk about what is taught and what is in school libraries. Republicans are significantly more likely to say that parents have too little opinion than Democrats, but even among Republicans, they say more that parents have the right opinion or too much about what happens in schools.
This question also includes a healthy “I’m not sure” answer rate, but keep in mind that less than 1 in 5 respondents generally say that parents have too little opinion. Parents are also more likely to say that schools teach even conflicting subjects according to their own values than to say that schools are not.
For politicians like DeSantis, it is worth responding to the noisy minority: national attention and influence with its base as it seeks re-election, if not more. But it is also useful to remember that shouting from one part of a party to a state does not necessarily reflect what the country as a whole wants to say.
Add Comment