A new poll by the nation’s largest teachers union shows culture war attacks on public schools have largely subsided in the 2022 midterm elections, proving less important to voters than concerns about shootings and violence in schools.
The findings help explain why a number of Democratic governors and gubernatorial candidates, including Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, and Arizona Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs, have been able to successfully fight conservative Republicans who have criticized racial theory and addressed important issues of transgender students in their own races.
“An enormous amount of time and money has been invested in CRT by conservative politicians and media,” said Margie Omero, a pollster at the Democratic firm GBAO Strategies, which conducted the poll for the National Education Association. “Voters rejected what the Republicans were offering and their attempts to create a problem in public schools.”
In Wisconsin, Evers successfully portrayed Gov. Tim Michels’ support for school choice as a threat to public schools. In Kansas, Kelly fought several ads attacking her veto of legislation to prevent transgender students from competing in sports aligned with their gender identity. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer succeeded in rejecting ads that suggested schools were more focused on a “woke” agenda than reading, writing and arithmetic.
Even before the election, there were clear signs that the GOP was struggling to turn the education culture wars into a winning issue. Only 1.7 percent of Republican ads mentioned the previously murky academic framework known as critical race theory, and a September memo from the Republican National Committee told GOP campaigns they needed to connect culture war issues with existing voter concerns, including the loss of knowledge in the pandemic. It was .
The poll found that three-fifths of midterm voters said school shootings were a major factor in their vote, more than any other education issue.
Voters placed far less weight on right-wing culture war themes. 43 percent worried that schools teaching critical race theory were “politically correct,” while 42 percent said they were worried about indoctrination by “radical left-wing teachers.”
The results reflect that while the idea of a critical race theory excited the Republican base, it did not significantly move persuasive voters in 2022. “Culture war issues do not resonate with independent voters at all,” the poll clarifies.
Voters also had more practical and traditional concerns about the funding of education and learning. 55% said schools failing to get enough funding was a major concern, while 54% said the same about learning losses due to the pandemic and low teacher pay causing schools to become understaffed.
Additionally, the poll found that a relatively small percentage of voters were animated by school choice issues. Only 38 percent of voters said school vouchers, which take money away from public schools, were a major factor in their vote, and only 29 percent said a lack of school choice options for parents was a major factor.
The poll also found that the public still has positive views of public schools and teachers. 57% said they have a favorable opinion of the K-12 schools in their neighborhood, only 18% have an unfavorable opinion. Almost two thirds have a favorable opinion of teachers, only 15% have a negative opinion.
In particular, very few voters see themselves as politically opposed to teachers. 62 percent of voters said they aligned with teachers on public education issues, while only 17 percent said they were against. Even among Republicans, a plurality of voters 39% said they were aligned with the teachers, compared to 34% against.
There are still signs that Democrats have not fully regained their pre-pandemic lead on education issues, with a number of pre-election polls showing them with a narrower-than-usual lead. Some successful GOP campaigns, including the re-election effort of Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.), have attacked their Democratic opponents for advocating school closures during the pandemic.
GBAO conducted the survey from November 10-19 via landlines and mobiles, surveying 1,200 midterm voters. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
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