Left-Wing Poll: Plurality of Independents Do Not Trust Either Party to Handle Education

Independent voters are wary of both Republicans and Democrats when it comes to education, a new poll by Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) found. 

Nearly half (49 percent) of independents do not trust either party to handle education, and both Republican and Democrat voters are extremely divided on the issue, according to the left-leaning poll. Eighty-eight percent of Democrats say they trust their own party to handle education, and 84 percent of Republicans side with their own party. Democrats hold a slight edge with independents over Republicans, 24 percent to 18 percent.

The poll results come as an ideological battle wages at schools across the country. Democrats and teachers’ unions notably led the charge for school closures during the coronavirus pandemic, which led to irreversible learning losses, and continue to push teaching gender identity and critical race theory to school children of all ages. In response, Republicans and concerned parents have crusaded for parental rights and campaigned to take back local school boards from left-wing activists. 

The left-leaning poll notably featured biased criticisms of Republicans and asked respondents to answer if those criticisms made them concerned to vote for Republicans. 

The first criticism states:

Republicans have proposed radical plans that would divert billions of dollars a year from public schools to vouchers for unaccountable private schools, religious schools, and homeschooling. This plan would result in funding cuts for public schools.

The second criticism states:

Republicans have inserted politics into our schools by banning books they don’t like, setting politician-led directives on what should be taught in classrooms instead of focusing on ensuring schools are teaching students to read and do math at grade level and preparing them for their futures.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they had “very serious concerns about voting for Republicans” regarding the first criticism, as did 38 percent regarding the second. But those one-sided statements made no mention of the fact that the books being banned in schools are usually either pornographic in nature or teach racial division and that politicians are having to intervene at schools because many are attempting to hide information about child sex changes and “anti-racist” initiatives from parents.

Watch — Joel Pollak: It’s Wrong to Use the Term “Book Bans” for School

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Other polling has found that Americans think it is inappropriate for public school teachers to bring their political views into their classrooms and that schools should focus on basic subjects rather than cultural issues such as transgenderism and sexual identity. A Harvard/Harris poll last year found that 67 percent of likely voters believe information about sexuality for children in kindergarten through third grade should be “left to parents,” including 82 percent of Republicans, 68 percent of independents, and 50 percent of Democrats.

The DFER poll was conducted in April by Emerson College Polling for DFER with 1,000 respondents and a credibility interval of ±3 percent.