The loudest fights over K-12 education can make it seem as if American voters in general, and parents in particular,1 are split into warring camps: back to basics v. SEL; school choice v. neighborhood schools; college v. career. But polling tells a less polarizing and more complicated and instructive story. Parents do not primarily want schools to serve as ideological battlegrounds. They want schools to work across a number of different areas.
Start with the basics. In Pew’s 2023 survey, 51% of U.S. adults said public K-12 education was headed in the wrong direction; among those respondents, the most common major reason was that schools were not spending enough time on core academic subjects, cited by 69%. National Parents Union 2024 polling points in the same direction: only 48% of public school parents said their child was definitely prepared academically for the next school year, and that figure dropped to 43% among middle school parents. ExcelinEd’s 2025 national survey found that 86% of respondents rated students being on grade level in reading, math, and writing as veryimportant, higher than for any other single aspect of schooling.
The reading data are especially clear. NPU’s poll found that 81% of public school parents supported setting a national goal for all public school students to read at grade level by third grade. The highest-supported reading-related policies were: free tutoring for students not reading at grade level (91%); research-backed reading curriculum and methods and teacher training and coaching (both at 89%); and, guidance for families on supporting reading skills (88%).