Teachers more optimistic under Trump administration, survey reveals

Educators nationwide are more optimistic about the state of education since President Trump was reelected, a new survey shows.

The poll, conducted by EdChoice and Morning Consult, surveyed over 1,000 educators in March 2025.

Survey respondents were optimistic about all levels of education – local (51%), state (43%) and national (31%). These numbers were an uptick from last year’s study but still lower than pre-pandemic levels.

One particular bright spot in the survey results was educators’ embrace of school choice – a surprising contrast to teachers’ union leaders who vehemently oppose it.

Indeed, when given a description of various school choice programs and policies, most educators said they would support:

• Education savings accounts (74%) 
• Open enrollment (66%)  
• Charter schools (60%)  
• And school vouchers (54%)  

“Teachers aren’t threatened by choice – they’re embracing it,” observed Colyn Ritter, senior research assistant at EdChoice. “They understand that when families have options, it creates a more responsive, flexible, and innovative education system.  

“Teachers themselves benefit from those options – whether by working in different school models or choosing alternative pathways for their own children.” 

Notably, private school educators reported more positive views of the teaching profession than public school educators.  

Private teachers also had more faith in their schools to handle thorny issues such as guns, bullying, student violence and mental health.  

Overall, teachers believed schools should be more accountable to the local community than the state or federal government.  

Teachers said the best people to make good educational decisions were fellow teachers (66%), principals (33%) and parents (24%), rather than local school boards (16%) or state or federal departments of education (16-17%).  

Most agreed the federal government’s main role in education should be providing funds for special needs and low-income students.  

Even though educators don’t want the federal government pulling the strings, over half opposed Trump’s idea of closing the U.S. Department of Education. The issue largely fell along party lines.  

When it came to K-12 education itself, teachers’ views were fairly milk water.  

When asked about the purpose of school, the most common answers were learning core academic subjects, fostering independent thinking, and developing skills for future employment.  

Instilling values, moral character and religious virtues were low on the list.  

In the realm of civics, 82% said it’s extremely or very important to teach the U.S. Constitution and its core values. However, 57% also said it’s good to question the actions and policies of the U.S. government and 34% said the U.S. was and is a fundamentally racist country.  

Eight-in-ten educators agreed the most important metric when grading teachers was “average student academic progress during the school year.”  

Only 29% ranked parent satisfaction as a metric to judge teacher performance.  

Since the pandemic, both academic outcomes and parent satisfaction have taken a nosedive, leading to a widespread exodus from public education.