Nationally, the U.S. has over 13,000 school boards, and most meet monthly to handle district affairs. These school board meetings are the spaces where some of a community’s most important decisions are made. Yet, if you are a parent of a child in the public schools, you’ve likely never been to a school board meeting. Or, if you have, then you most likely had an underwhelming experience. You were probably inundated in acronyms and esoteric language. You likely felt uncomfortable with the idea of giving public comment, and you also quickly realized that should you make a comment, you’ll get no response from the school board.

But, what if school board meetings were different? What if they were more engaging? What if school board members and the superintendent were going to give you a direct response when you brought an issue to the floor? Would that change your view of how useful the meetings are?

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Public schools across the United States have been operating during the coronavirus pandemic, mostly via remote instruction or hybrid learning models. The big question now is when K-12 schools will bring students back into schools for in-person instruction.

It’s a question spawning fierce debates around the country. Yet we have not received a clear answer. So, who actually supports reopening schools, and why?

To address this question, I fielded a national survey of Americans’ opinions of education policy issues, looking primarily at the issue of reopening schools. The survey data suggest Americans are as divided as their political leaders about whether schools should resume in-person instruction. However, a closer look reveals that the political and financial motivations of the middle and upper classes may be drowning out health-related concerns of the most vulnerable.

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For perhaps the first time in recent history, every school district across the nation is seriously considering the question of whether their institutions should physically reopen in the fall, given the risk of spreading the coronavirus. President Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have called for schools to physically reopen. These public declarations have brought mass resistance from K-12 teachers, with many threatening to strike if forced to enter the classroom.

Many teachers are concerned that reopened schools will further spread covid-19. Others worry that Black, LatinX and low-income students will be further disadvantaged by the potential learning losses associated with instruction online only.

The stakes are high and the debate has been highly politicized. Our research asked: What do ordinary Americans think about schools reopening? How does race shape these attitudes?

Here is what we discovered.

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