School Year Off to Rocky Start in New Teacher Survey

The 2025-26 school year has gotten off to a rocky start. This fall, teachers are contending with new challenges in the classroom, from technology to political pressure. We’ve put together a wide variety of questions to shed light on how teachers are feeling this year.

In partnership with Morning Consult, EdChoice developed a nationally representative survey of K–12 teachers (N = 1,004), fielded from September 20-25, 2025. The full report is available here, and read on for the key findings:

Teacher Pessimism Increases

This fall, only 26% of teachers say that K-12 education is going in the right direction nationwide. That’s a 5-point decrease since the spring, when 31% of teachers felt optimistic. Notably, teachers feel more positive about education at the local level, with 50% saying things are going well at their local schools. Their confidence in local schooling did not dip this fall, unlike their feelings about national education.

Teachers also remain pessimistic towards the teaching profession, a trend that’s continued since fall of 2023. Only 22% of teachers would recommend teaching to a friend or family member. Persistently low teacher morale is a concerning sign — and, similarly to teacher views on the direction of education, it has dropped by 5 points in the fall after seeming to recover in the spring.

With teacher optimism oscillating between these peaks and troughs, it will be even more important to keep an eye on whether these trends stabilize going forward. Perhaps the flash of optimism in spring 2025 was short-lived.

Are Teachers Changing Class Content due to Political Pressure?

The short answer is that yes, some teachers are.

In September 2025, 40% of teachers said that they’ve had to modify at least some of their curriculum or topics of class discussion because of political pressure. Private and public school teachers report similar amounts of changes to curriculum. However, the source of political pressure differs, with private school teachers experiencing much more political pressure from parents (41% vs 28%). Public school teachers report experiencing the most political pressure from school administrators (35%), the federal government (33%), and the state government (31%).

Setting aside external pressures, the majority of teachers (56%) say they’ve decided on their own to limit discussion of political and social issues in class. This represents a 13-point increase since this past spring, perhaps indicating that teachers are feeling increasing pressure to self-censor on political topics in class. It’s cause for concern if censorship is truly on the rise — it’s one thing to keep personal views out of teaching, and another thing to limit class discussions on valuable social topics.

Concerns Persist around Cell Phones and Artificial Intelligence

Unsurprisingly, teachers are not fans of cell phones in the classroom. Nearly 8 in 10 teachers (79%) oppose allowing students to have cell phones in class. That said, a slim majority (52%) of teachers support students having cell phones at school.

Similarly to school parents, teachers identify a difference between taking a phone to school and using it in class. Correspondingly, only 29% of teachers support using cell phones in class as a learning tool, with an overwhelming majority of teachers (70%) opposing the idea.

Another divisive classroom technology is artificial intelligence, with 46% of teachers supporting the use of AI in class and 48% of teachers opposing it. Other technologies like tablets, laptops, and online learning platforms like Google Classroom are widely popular among most teachers.

Dealing with AI is a specter hanging over the classroom. Forty percent of teachers are very or extremely concerned about how AI is affecting their students’ learning this year, and 77% of teachers are at least somewhat concerned. It’s a difficult issue to tackle, with competing needs to monitor inappropriate use of AI and instruct students on responsible AI practices. Teachers generally oppose letting students use AI as assistance for schoolwork, with 58% against the idea. At the same time, the vast majority of teachers (73%) also think it’s very important to help students build the skills to appropriately use AI.

Notably, teachers are also concerned about AI more broadly. About half of teachers (46%) feel very or extremely concerned about how AI will affect society in the future, and 84% of teachers express at least some concern about AI. Fears about AI are higher among teachers than the general public. That might be worrying, since teachers have a front-row view of how artificial intelligence is impacting the next generation.

Teachers Support ESAs and Teacher Savings Accounts

As we regularly report, most teachers support education savings accounts, with 75% indicating support in September. This trend has remained stable over time.

A somewhat fresher question is the teacher savings account (TSA). Similar to the model of an ESA, this is a proposed government-authorized savings account that would allow educators to use funds for various purposes, such as classroom supplies and professional development opportunities. An overwhelming majority of teachers (82%) support the idea of teacher savings accounts. Perhaps this is a way we can help support teachers given the evolving difficulties of the teaching profession in 2025.

Read the full survey here.