Poll: Most Parents Disagree with Trump’s Approach to Reopening Schools

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According to a Washington Post-Schar School survey conducted by Ipsos, 63 percent of parents disapprove of the Trump administration’s push to fully reopen schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. 44 percent strongly disapprove while 15 percent said they strongly approve.

The poll found that both sides of the political aisle are heavily divided on this issue. While 75 percent of Republican parents approve of the Trump administration’s approach, only 31 percent of independents and 10 percent of Democrats do.

There is a racial divide as well: 48 percent of White parents say they support the administration’s approach compared to 11 percent of Black parents and 22 percent of Hispanic parents.

Among parents who have children enrolled in private schools, there is a 49 percent approval rating for the administration’s approach. Among parents who have children enrolled in public or charter schools, approval for the administration’s approach is only 34 percent.

The poll also found that more than 80 percent favor holding school at least partly online.

“But parents also express serious concerns with online schooling and many are drawn to systems that mix the two,” The Washington Post reports. “The mixed feelings reflect deep and widespread anxiety among parents as they approach the end of a summer break that has produced no national consensus on how to balance the risks of the virus against the academic, social and economic impacts of keeping schools closed.”

44 percent of parents say they support hybrid learning. 39 percent of parents say school should be entirely online. Just 16 percent of parents favor fully reopening schools.