How do Americans really feel about reopening schools?
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.
The stakes are high, particularly for underserved groups
A recent McKinsey report estimates that students are learning only 67 percent of the math they’d typically learn in a year, and that number slumps to 59 percent for students in schools mainly serving children of color. Millions of children are falling behind.
To complicate matters, schools are not major sites for coronavirus transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But they can facilitate high levels of transmission in communities with lots of cases — in other words, it’s only safe inside a school if it’s safe outside the school. This alone makes it challenging to have a solid stance on reopening.
But when it comes to what the public wants, are the motivations for reopening schools even about student learning and the public health risks, or is it about something else? My research suggests that support for school reopening is highest among White parents of means, a group less likely to have experienced the harshest effects of the pandemic relative to other groups of parents.
How I did my research
I fielded a national survey through the research firm Prolific on Jan. 21. To examine attitudes on school reopenings, I asked respondents this question: A number of schools around the U.S. are attempting to reopen for in-person instruction. Do you agree or disagree with schools reopening for in-person instruction? Survey participants provided responses ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” My final sample include 806 respondents — a nationally representative survey weighted to census information across income levels, race, ethnicity and gender.