Poll: Voters and parents think schools teach too much sex and not enough citizenship

A new Fox News poll shows that voters think schools teach too little in the basic academic skills of reading, writing and math.

Nearly half of those surveyed (48%) also agree that schools focus too much on sexual orientation and gender issues.

A majority consensus of voters (70%) believe that too little citizenship is taught in schools, the poll revealed.

Those who identify as parents overwhelmingly agree that not enough curriculum is devoted to citizenship and too much is devoted to sexual identity. 

“Majorities of parents overall feel there is not enough emphasis on good citizenship (67%) and too much on sexual orientation (57%),” said Fox.  

The poll of 1,002 registered voters nationwide was jointly conducted by both Democrat and Republican polling firms, said Fox. 

The results generally agree with recent surveys showing that majorities of Americans believe LGBT curricula should not be assigned in schools and that parents should have the most influence in what kids are taught. 

A poll by APM Research released in June said that seven out of 10 American adults oppose assigning books with an LGBT main character. The poll also found that nearly half of Americans (48%) think that parents should lead the discussion about LGBTQ issues. 

Just 25% thought teachers should have influence about LGBT and gender issues in school.    

Predictably, the party affiliation of respondents in the Fox poll appear to correlate with perspectives on teaching on race and sex in schools, but less so on civics. 

“On the two most divisive issues tested, independents are more likely to agree with Democrats on racism (43% say too little is being taught) and with Republicans on sexual orientation (47% say too much is being taught),” reported Fox.  

But on civics there is near unanimity between the parties, with Democrats (65%), Republicans (75%), and independents (71%) all favoring more citizenship classes.  

The poll comes just three months after the nationwide test that measures student achievement showed that civic scores dropped to all-time lows.  

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, revealed that only 22% of 8th grade students nationwide are proficient in civics, according to the New York Times. 

Just 13% of students were considered proficient in U.S. history, according to the NAEP, a plunge of 28 percentage points from a decade ago. 

As it relates to school choice, the Fox poll produced some unexpected results. 

Only 50% of poll respondents favor using state money for charter schools versus 44% who oppose the use of state money for charters.

Charter schools are, in fact, publicly funded and are the fastest growing part of the public school system.

From 2010 to 2022, the number of charter schools in the United States grew from 5300 to 7800, a 47% increase, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). 

Meanwhile, the number of public schools has dropped 2.25% over the same period, said the NCES.

“A charter school is a public school that operates as a school of choice. Charter schools commit to obtaining specific educational objectives in return for a charter to operate a school,” said the National Charter School Resource Center.