Common Ground

How divided are Americans in arguments over public education? Daniel Cox on the surprising consensus lost in the conflict. “When you have a simple narrative, it spreads so much more quickly—even if it’s not quite true—than if you have a more complex one.” Common Ground How divided are Americans in arguments over public education? Daniel Cox on the surprising consensus lost in the conflict. Some of the most polarized political battles in America over the past year have [been about what goes on at schools]( mask mandates, vaccination requirements, or how teachers should approach the question of racism in U.S. history. A [recent report]( from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) confirmed just how divided along partisan lines Americans are on issues in education. Yet the same report found “surprising consensus” on how schools ought to fight the spread of Covid-19, a widely shared sense that “politicians should stay out of local education decisions,” and even a “startling level of agreement” about education on race and religion. If all this is true, how can we understand all the polarization around education in light of it? Daniel Cox is a co-author of the report and the director of AEI’s Survey Center on American Life. According to Cox, the reality—often obscured in media coverage, by politicians, and in the resultant tenor of public debate—is that the context for Americans’ disagreements about public education is often deeper agreement. Most think mask and vaccination requirements in schools represent a legitimate public good; there is massive support for students learning unflattering truths about U.S. history, including about racism and slavery; and while there’s a meaningful divergence between Democrats and Republicans on whether legislatures should ban “critical race theory” in the classroom, there’s also very little consensus on what “critical race theory” is. Overall, Cox sees real divisions on some of the specifics of these issues—the way certain subjects are taught, how much to prioritize them, etc.—but, he says, those divisions aren’t what they might seem. ——— Graham Vyse: How should we understand the intense political polarization and conflict over U.S. public schools today, given how much agreement you’ve found across education issues? Daniel Cox: The debates over Covid-19 protocols have overshadowed a lot of long-standing issues like sex education, which has been a perennial focus of controversy in public schools. It’s really notable that, in a sprawling survey getting at lots of different topics, sex education is definitely not the highlight of the report. There hasn’t been a lot of movement on that issue, similar to the issue of abortion. Americans, in general, think sex education is important. Younger people tend to be more supportive of teaching it than older people. Some people, particularly Christian conservatives, believe parents should be able to opt their kids out of the subject. The 1970s and 1980s saw the rise of the Christian Right, which was really focused on issues of human sexuality—homosexuality, premarital sex—and it centered on public schools because of concerns about the transmission of values there. One of the reasons you’re seeing debates becoming so hot over Covid—why there’s a sensitivity you don’t see elsewhere—is because you’re dealing with children. My kids have been wearing masks for 18 months and they’re perfectly fine. I understand some kids have had issues. There’s an irony that the same people who don’t want masks don’t want their kids to get vaccinated either, even though the way not to have to wear masks is to get vaccinated. We saw that both Republicans and Democrats are actually supportive of the principle of mandatory vaccinations for long-standing childhood illnesses—mumps, measles—and there’s cross-partisan support for requiring vaccinations for public schools. Because Covid is new—and because of how people ended up learning about it, and how politically politicized it got so early on—we ended up with a lot of polarization on Covid-19 vaccines, but there’s a path forward for making these things less politically polarizing. More from Daniel Cox at The Signal: “Americans are moving to consensus on some perennial debates, while newer issues like the use of the term ‘white privilege’ are still very much in dispute. Featuring Black Lives Matter banners or pride flags in schools is still quite contentious. The pride-flag issue is particularly notable because of where a lot of people think Americans are on LGBTQ issues. Gallup polling recently found support for same-sex marriage up to 70 percent, but there’s still a lot of disagreement. Most Americans don’t think learning about the history of the LGBTQ movement is that important. Less than half of Democrats think it is. There’s support for transgender people being allowed to teach, but still significant opposition too.” “When it comes to who should have a say in what students are taught and how they’re taught, Democrats and Republicans are in agreement that legislatures shouldn’t be involved. That’s notable, given some of the heavy-handed actions we’ve seen. We actually asked specifically about critical race theory—whether legislatures should be banning it, regardless of what you think about it—and Americans are fairly uncomfortable with legislatures stepping in.” “If you look at trust in education, particularly in higher education, there’s a cultural current in evangelical Christianity that says folks are trying to take religion out of schools. But if you look at the findings of the poll, there’s a lot of public support for some degree of religion—not straight Christian instruction, but learning about world religions, or recognizing and celebrating religious holidays, or having, say, an atheist club. The idea that Americans want religion totally removed from schools—even public schools—isn’t true. It’s ironic that there’s been so much heat around that issue when there’s actually more consensus than you might think.” ——— Power and Glory Does religion now belong to the right in U.S. politics? Matthew Sitman on Joe Biden’s Catholicism and the broad potential of religious tradition in American democracy. (Originally published 2021 | 05.31) The election and inauguration of the second-ever Catholic president of the United States were notably unoccupied with his Catholicism. In a diverse Democratic primary field—up against candidates who were women, non-white, Jewish, or openly gay—Joe Biden’s Catholic identity was essentially a non-issue. Yet religion, and Christianity especially, continues to represent a major force in American politics, even as traditional worship is on the decline. The current U.S. Congress is [more religiously affiliated]( than the population as a whole. More than a quarter of Americans are religiously unaffiliated, but only one member of Congress is, Arizona’s Senator Kyrsten Sinema. How is religion shaping U.S. political life today? According to Matthew Sitman, an associate editor of Commonweal and the co-host of the podcast Know Your Enemy, religious affiliation in America is often connected these days with patterns of partisan and cultural polarization. To be on the Christian right, he says, is pervasively about opposition to “wokeness” or perceived extremism on the left. But Sitman, a Catholic social democrat, sees a role for religion in liberal and left politics too—and in connecting people beyond politics. While the religious left isn’t a mirror image of the politically united and organized religious right, liberal and progressive religious ideals and leadership can offer moral guidance to movements and politicians alike. Yet the value of religion in American democracy, Sitman says, isn’t ultimately in how it shapes policies but in “serving as a reminder that there are things of importance that go beyond the next election.” ——— ——— [The Signal]( is a new, independent digital publication exploring vital questions in democratic life and the human world—and sustained entirely by readers like you. To support The Signal and for full access: We recently resolved a broken-link issue with our opt-out function. If you’ve received this in error, our apologies—you can immediately unsubscribe below. Thank you. © 2021 The Signal The Signal | 717 N St. NW, Ste. One, Washington, DC 20011 [Unsubscribe {EMAIL}]( [Constant Contact Data Notice]( Sent by newsletters@thesgnl.email