Satisfaction With U.S. K-12 Schools Hits Record Low, Gallup Finds
American adults' satisfaction with the nation's K-12 schools has fallen to its lowest level in nearly three decades, according to a new Gallup poll conducted with the Walton Family Foundation and shared exclusively with The Associated Press.
Only 32% of U.S. adults say they are "completely" or "somewhat" satisfied with the quality of K-12 education — an 11-percentage-point drop over the past two years and the worst showing since Gallup first asked the question 27 years ago. Dissatisfaction, meanwhile, now stands at a record 67%.
The findings reflect what education policy experts describe as a profound erosion of trust in public schooling, a trend driven by overlapping forces: sharper partisan divisions over what schools should teach, lingering fallout from pandemic-era disruptions, and a steady drumbeat of discouraging news about student achievement.
Democrats account for the sharpest decline in satisfaction, with their approval falling roughly 19 points since President Donald Trump began his second term in 2025. Independents' satisfaction is down about 10 points from 2024, while Republicans' satisfaction has dipped about 6 points.
Jack Schneider, director of the Center for Education Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said the Trump administration has helped fuel the crisis in public confidence by framing schools as political battlegrounds — targeting classroom speech, diversity programs and the U.S. Education Department itself.
"It's terrifying," Schneider said. "We're on the precipice of the dissolution of the public education system as we have known it." He added that Democrats are especially troubled by Trump's signature school choice initiative, which would use taxpayer-funded scholarships to send children to private schools.
But the slump extends beyond politics. Since COVID-19 forced schools to close classrooms, public trust has been weakened by well-documented academic declines, worsening youth mental health, and screens now competing for students' attention.
"We've had a drumbeat of bad news about test scores and other social trends that could be driving this," said Sarah Reckhow, a Michigan State University political science professor who studies public policy. "There's a ton of debate, discussion and noise about technology and AI in education," she said, noting that student screen time has become a dominant issue in local and national headlines.
Notably, parents remain far more positive about the schools their own children attend. Roughly two-thirds of parents of school-age children say they are satisfied with their child's education — still a low point in the trend, but double the overall adult satisfaction rate of 32%. That gap underscores a familiar dynamic: parents judge their own schools by direct experience, while broader opinion is shaped by political rhetoric and national news coverage.
"When people weigh in about the nation's schools, what they are commenting on are 98,999 schools that they haven't set foot in," Schneider said.
A separate August survey by Gallup and Walton asked Americans how well schools are preparing young people for what comes next. Just about 2 in 10 adults gave schools high marks for teaching critical thinking or preparing students for today's workforce. Schools fared best on helping students adapt to new technology, with 44% giving them a strong rating.
Gallup senior education researcher Zach Hrynowski said the results reflect broader public frustration with institutions across American life.
"People have a general negative vibe about everything in the country right now," Hrynowski said. "People are frustrated, and don't think any institution is working particularly well."
The findings carry significant implications for public policy and school funding, experts say. As confidence wanes, support for traditional public education could weaken, giving momentum to voucher programs, charter expansions and other alternatives.
The main Gallup poll was conducted by telephone from Aug. 3-24, 2026, using a random sample of U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The margin of sampling error for U.S. adults overall is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. For parents of K-12 students, the margin is plus or minus 8.3 percentage points.
The second poll of 2,143 U.S. adults ages 18 and older was conducted Aug. 3-17, 2026, using a sample drawn from Gallup's probability-based panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for U.S. adults overall is plus or minus 3.0 percentage points.
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