Dive Brief:
- Nearly 60% of parents support using public funds for their child to attend a private or religious school, up from 50% in 2007, according to the 57th annual PDK Poll released Tuesday.
- Overall support for public schools dropped, as the percentage of respondents grading their own community schools with an A or B fell from 53% in 2013 to 43% in 2025.
- Despite the shift in attitude away from public schools, PDK found that a majority of respondents — 66% — were opposed or strongly opposed to the closure of the U.S. Department of Education, which is a key goal of the Trump administration. Some 22%, however, said they support or strongly support shuttering the agency.
Dive Insight:
Parents’ shift away from public schools comes at a time when the sector is facing increased competition from expanded school choice options and birth rate declines are leading to lower future enrollment pools.
It’s possible parents will have more school choice options made available to their children with an increase of educational options at the state level. Additionally, in July, Congress approved the first federal private school choice tax credit available nationwide in Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” budget law.
Still, 65% of Americans surveyed by PDK said they believe closing the Education Department would hurt public education.
But as birth rates continue to dip and research shows more parents pivoting away from traditional school models, there’s increasing evidence that the COVID-19 shift toward alternative schooling options could be prolonged even as its momentum has shown signs of slowing.
School districts nationwide are already considering some tough decisions as a result of enrollment declines, including possible school closures, consolidations or redistricting.
Last week, Austin Independent School District in Texas announced it’s looking into potential options for school consolidations that could go into effect as soon as the 2026-27 school year. The district chalked this consideration up to having lost over 10,000 students within the past decade.
Atlanta Public Schools recently said it was in the early stages of weighing school consolidation and merger plans amid significant enrollment drops. And in July, St. Louis Public Schools proposed closing 37 of its 68 schools over the next two school years — also due to declining enrollment and empty classroom seats.
Other findings from the PDK Poll include:
- A majority of respondents — 68% — said they did not support providing student data to artificial intelligence software for grading, assessment data or other personal information. Overall public support dropped regarding student and teacher use of AI tools between 2024 and 2025, with its use in the creation of lesson plans seeing the greatest dip.
- Some 61% of adults said diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives are very or somewhat important to them.
- Cellphone bans were also popular among those surveyed, with 86% saying they support some sort of cellphone restriction for students during the school day.
- Public concern over low teacher salaries shrank slightly, with 64% viewing teacher pay as too low in 2025 compared to 66% in 2018.
The poll surveyed 1,000 adults between June 21 and June 30 and was conducted for PDK by The Wason Center for Civic Leadership at Christopher Newport University.
