More than half of Americans are dissatisfied with K-12 education in the U.S. and have been for the better part of a decade. Many states have been working to increase transparency in public schools and expand parental choice in order to improve schools and satisfaction with them.

New data from our State Voices project shows most Americans would like to see even bigger and bolder reforms. Two-thirds (64%) believe we need to completely re-think how we educate students.

What does rethinking education mean to voters?

Voters know K-12 education is America isn’t where it should be but there is less consensus on which parts of our system need a major overhaul. Six-in-ten Americans think the way life skills are taught need to be fixed and roughly half feel the same about the pace of learning, the rigor of academics and the approach towards race and equality. One-quarter of Americans believe all five of these areas need major changes.

Interestingly, partisans agree on the need to re-examine the way we teach race and equality. Just over half of both groups believe we need to make big changes to how we teach these topics. We can assume these groups want to make different kinds of changes, which we will be examining in a future wave of State Voices, but it’s clear a sizable number of Americans are unhappy with the status quo.

Furthermore, a majority of voters believe parents should have more input on what is taught in schools (70%) and that there should be more options in public education (77%). Although there are wider partisan gaps here, 60%+ of respondents among all political affiliations agree with these ideas.

Does School Choice fill the need for reform?

After giving voters a short definition of a school choice program where money would follow the student, 53% of Americans said they would support such a policy. However, among those that believe we need to fundamentally re-think K-12 education—fewer people supported this type of program (52%).

While it is clear Americans generally want big changes in K-12 education, school choice doesn’t fit the bill for many. And there is some evidence that a portion of school choice supporters favor the policy because it will prevent large scale change in our education system – just 33% of voters both believe we need to re-think our educational system and support money-follow-the-child programs.

What’s Next?

Parental choice and expanded opportunities for students are critical parts of improving our educational system. However, it’s not going to satisfy the needs and wants of every American who is in favor of large-scale overhauls. Our movement needs expand our solution set in order to have the greatest impact on improving education in America.

Watch for future releases of State Voices where we will explore the need to re-think different aspects of education further.