Polling Shows LGBTQ Americans are Worried About the Future of Education

June marks Pride Month—a time to both celebrate and, for those of us in the field of education, reflect on LGBTQ schooling experiences. So far, it’s been a tumultuous year. Back in January, President Trump rolled back Biden-era protections for LGBTQ students and signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K–12 Schooling,” instructing cabinet secretaries to develop plans to withhold federal funding from schools teaching “discriminatory equity ideology” or “gender ideology.” These freshly-minted terms veil familiar targets—critical race theory, systemic racism, and gender identity.

It remains unclear whether the President has the authority to withhold funding from schools based on these criteria, and legal battles are ongoing. That said, restrictions on classroom discussion of gender have increased sharply in the last couple of years, both federally and among almost half of U.S. states. This puts teachers, students, and school staff who are part of the LGBTQ community in an uncertain position. It’s worth taking a look at the thoughts of the people who could be most impacted by these policy decisions.

We ask Americans and school parents how they’re feeling about the future and the direction of national K–12 education every month as part of our Public Opinion Tracker survey. In partnership with Morning Consult, EdChoice surveyed a nationally representative sample of American adults 18 and older (N = 2,257) from May 9 to May 11, 2025.

Since February of last year, public opinion on national K–12 education has remained reliably bleak. Optimism hovers around the lowest levels we’ve seen since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2025, half of Americans (49%) said that education was on the wrong track nationwide. About a third (28%) said it was on the right track.

But if we dive deeper into the numbers, a striking theme emerges. We disaggregate dozens of demographic groups, analyzing our results by gender, ethnicity, income status, age group, and so on. The single least optimistic group on education in May 2025 was respondents who identified themselves as members of the LGBTQ community. Almost two-thirds of LGBTQ people (59%) say that national education is going in the wrong direction. That’s 10 points higher than the general population. Only 15% say that national education is on the right track.

Let’s compare this to a year ago. In May 2024, a similar percentage of Americans, 55%, said that education was on the wrong track nationwide. LGBTQ respondents were slightly less negative than the general population, with 52% voicing pessimism about education.

In the space of the year, LGBTQ people have diverged from other Americans to become one of the most concerned groups about the future of education in the country. And it’s not hard to imagine why. With heated political discourse surrounding gender identity in the classroom, those who identify with non-traditional gender norms may feel like they’re being cast as a danger to K–12 education.

Typically, our surveys find that people view education more positively at the state and especially the local level. This pattern holds among LGBTQ respondents from May as well—though not to the same extent that we’ve seen in past surveys. In May 2025, 35% of Americans said that education is on the right track in their state, compared to 21% of LGBTQ Americans. That’s a 14-point difference, a larger gap in optimism than we observed regarding national education. It’s notable that their concerns extend beyond the level of federal policy—hitting closer to home, too.

Finally, we can’t ignore the elephant in the room of federal education policy: closing the Department of Education. As we’ve documented recently, polling shows that Americans are generally not favorable towards shutting down the department. In May, one-third of Americans (33%) supported the idea, and the majority opposed it (53%). LGBTQ Americans oppose closing the DOE at even steeper rates, with 63% expressing opposition. This sends another strong signal that the LGBTQ community is worried about federal policy on K–12 education, contributing to their growing concern about the future of education. As policymakers continue to make decisions about what’s appropriate to teach in the classroom, it’s important to remember the effect that this discourse may have on people in our community. Debating the best approach to teach American history shouldn’t become a way to make certain groups of people feel less welcome in the classroom. All students have a right to feel safe and respected at school.