Parents want classroom options for education
Bottom Line: One of the recent narratives, advanced by news media and their political allies in the public education establishment, has been the lack of the desire for a return to classroom education this fall. You’ve probably heard the stories that seemingly almost all parents aren’t supportive of classroom education and have wondered why. Especially if you’re a parent desirous of having classroom options. If you are, know that you’re in the majority and the notion that most parents don’t want classroom education options is nothing more than polling manipulation. I’ll explain.
One of the most widely reported polls over the past week on the topic of opening schools was conducted by the Associated Press in conjunction with the NORC Center for Public Affairs. Here’s the AP’s own headline from their polling: Very few Americans back full school reopening. That was widely reported as parents not wanting to return kids to classrooms this fall. But that’s not at all the case. Just how deceptive was the polling and the narrative behind the headline? Here are the facts from AP’s own poll:
- 46% back classroom education with modifications for safety
- 31% don’t back any classroom education this fall
- 14% think schools should resume with minor adjustments
- 8% think schools should resume as usual without restrictions
Now here’s a breakdown of what parents actually want in context:
- 68% of parents want classroom options
- 31% of parents don’t want classroom options
- 1% are unsure
That’s right, in AP’s own polling they found more than two-thirds of parents want classroom options for their children this fall. That should have been the headline, right? After all isn’t the point of the poll to identify what the majority of parents want? But that didn’t fit the narrative of the teacher’s unions which are suing to attempt to prevent classroom education and superintendents which are often politically sympathetic to the teacher’s unions (as a reminder the FEA is suing Florida to attempt to prevent classroom ed). So instead of a headline reading that more than two-thirds of parents want classroom education options, we have Very few Americans back full school reopening. Whether it’s AP’s polling, Fox News or polling locally of Floridians – I've yet to see a single poll in which a majority of parents didn’t want classroom options. Now you know how news media is spinning the polling data to attempt to fit the lockdown narrative.