Fall Polling Finds Parents Value Durable Skills Development in Schools 

With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, parents and students are sprinting towards the end of the fall semester. This fall, we surveyed thousands of Americans and school parents across the country on a handful of topics, including their opinions on school choice policies, technology in K-12 education, durable skills, debate and civil discourse classes, and much more.  

In partnership with Morning Consult, EdChoice surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,250 adults and 1,300 school parents each month in August, September, October, and November. For those interested in the full report, it can be found here. 

Let’s break down some of the key findings: 

Schooling and Experiences 

1. Private school parents are much more likely than public school parents to rate their child’s school an A for this school year. When asked to grade their child’s school for this school year, nearly half (48%) of private school parents gave an A, compared to only one-third (33%) of public school parents who said the same. That said, an overwhelming majority of both private school (88%) and public school parents (77%) rated their child’s school either an A or B for this school year. Less than one in ten private school parents (4%) and public school parents (5%) rated their child’s school with a D or F grade, while 5% of public school parents responded, “Don’t know” or “No opinion.” 

2. Parents were most likely to say that their child’s academic progress (41%) and their child’s mental health and wellbeing (38%) were on their minds most often when thinking about the current school year. Additionally, one-third (33%) of parents cited school safety, followed by curriculum and classroom content (26%). Issues like individualized attention for their child (17%), use of technology (12%), and attendance (11%) were less likely to be on the minds of parents this school year. 

3. Just over half of parents are confident that their child’s school can address issues like mental health and wellbeing and school safety. Parents signaled most confidence (selecting either “extremely” or “very” confident) that their child’s school can address issues of attendance (76%), child’s academic progress (74%), and use of technology (71%). On the other hand, parents are least confident in their child’s school’s ability to address issues like class size (45%) and transportation and start times (46%). Notably, just over half of parents express confidence in their child’s school’s ability to handle school safety (53%) and their child’s mental health and wellbeing (55%), leaving a large chunk of parents without high confidence that their child’s school can address such important issues.  

Durable Skills 

1. More than 80% of parents believe it is very important that their child’s school prioritizes durable skill development. For this first time in our Public Opinion Tracker polling, we asked parents about their opinions on durable skill development. Durable skills (skills such as communication, critical thinking, teamwork, adaptability, and responsibility) are clearly valued by parents, as 85% said it is either “extremely” or “very” important that their child’s school prioritizes developing these skills.  

2. Nearly 60% of parents said their child’s school is “excellent” or “very good” at teaching durable skills. On top of that, another 24% of parents said their child’s school does a “good” job at teaching durable skills. Only roughly 10% of parents say their child’s school does either a “fair” or “poor” job at teaching such skills.  

3. Parents are most likely to believe that the responsibility for teaching students durable skills is shared across their community, including both parents and schools. A plurality of parents (41%) said it should be a shared responsibility. One-fourth of parents (25%) said parents/guardians should be most responsible for teaching durable skills, while 18% of parents said schools should bear the load of responsibility. Another 9% of parents said either community organizations or employers (through internships or training) should be most responsible.  

4. A school’s emphasis on teaching durable skills has a high impact on parents’ schooling decisions for their child. Nearly half (45%) said that how a school emphasizes durable skills would make a “significant” impact on their enrollment decision, while another 38% said it would make “some” impact on their decision. Roughly 10% of parents said it would make “not much” of an impact or no impact at all.  

5. A majority of Americans and school parents consider it important for high school students to learn civil debate skills. We debuted another new topic, this time asking both Americans and school parents about the value of learning civil debate skills (e.g. using evidence, turn-taking, arguing both sides) in schools. A majority of Americans (53%), as well as 65% of school parents, said it was at least very important that high school students learn civil debate skills. Both Americans (48%) and school parents (58%) were slightly less likely to say middle school students should learn civil debate skills, however. 

6. Parents and Americans support teaching debate and civil discourse classes in both middle and high school. For both middle and high school, Americans and school parents were mostly likely to support integrating debate skills across required classes like math, reading/English, social studies, and science. The next most popular approach was for debate and civil discourse to be a stand-alone elective course that students can choose to take. Only about one in five Americans and school parents signaled support for it to be a required stand-alone course that students must take to graduate, the third most popular approach. Finally, less than one in ten Americans and school parents said they would not support teaching debate and civil discourse in either middle or high school classes.  

Technology in K-12 Education 

1. One-third of school parents believe their children are using technology too much. When asked how much time their child spends on technology, 34% said too much while more than half of parents (57%) say their child spends about the right amount of time. Only 3% of parents feel their child spends too little time on technology.  

2. Parents are generally satisfied with their child’s use of technology in school. More than 80% of parents are at least “somewhat” satisfied with their child’s use of technology in school, including 44% of parents that are “very” satisfied. Less than one in ten parents are dissatisfied with their child’s use of technology in school.  

3. Nearly two-thirds of parents (63%) feel their child should be allowed to have their cell phone at school. On the other hand, only one-third of parents feel their child should be allowed to have their cell phone in the classroom, highlighting a key distinction in parents’ opinions on cell phone use in school compared to the classroom. This pattern is in line with what we’ve observed in the past for this question.  

K-12 School Choice Policies 

1. Support for ESAs, school vouchers, charter schools, and open enrollment is higher when given a brief description of each policy. More than two-thirds of Americans support ESAs (68%) and open enrollment (70%) when given a brief description of the policy. Support for school vouchers (62%) and charter schools (64%) are also high but lag slightly behind in terms of support when given a brief description. Support for these policies has changed slightly since the summer.  

2. In November, nearly three-fourths of school parents supported ESAs. Parents are even more supportive of the policy (73%) when given a description of the policy. Only 10% of parents oppose the policy, a consistent trend we’ve observed since we began tracking the question back in 2020. Some demographic groups that are especially supportive of ESAs include respondents that identify as progressive (77%), second-generation immigrants (77%), and respondents that identify as conservative (75%), highlighting the bipartisan support ESAs garner.  

3. Nearly three-fourths of school parents believe ESAs should be available to all families regardless of income or special needs. That is 14 points higher than the percentage of parents who want ESA eligibility to be determined by financial need.  

4. Support for refundable tax credits in K-12 education is strong, especially among parents. Both Americans (65% total support) and school parents (75% total support) are supportive of refundable tax credits in K-12 education, with parents (41% strongly support) being more likely than Americans (27% strongly support) to show strong support for the policy.  

5. Nearly 80% of school parents support 529 plans for K-12 education expenses. The public (71%) also overwhelmingly supports them. Diving deeper, we asked parents whether they’ve contributed to a 529 account in the past year and if they plan to do so in the future. Thinking about the past year, only 27% of parents signaled they have contributed to a 529 account for their child. That said, parents appear motivated to start contributing to a 529 in the coming year. Nearly half of parents (44%) said they are either “extremely” or “very” likely to contribute to a 529 for their child. Another 26% of parents say they are “somewhat” likely to contribute, while only 15% of parents say they are not likely to put money into a 529 plan in the next year. 

Visit the EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker site to access more information on our polling, including: Reports, Crosstabs, Questionnaires and Methodology  

EdChoice sponsors and develops the monthly Public Opinion Tracker survey series. In partnership with Morning Consult, the online surveys were administered August 15-19, 2025, September 12-14, 2025, October 10-12, 2025, and November 14-16, 2025. These surveys included nationally representative samples of roughly 2,250 adults and 1,300 school parents, including an oversample of 850 school parents in each survey. To ensure representativeness, statistical results were weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies based on certain demographic information provided by the U.S. Census Bureau based on: Age, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Education.