Party Differences in Schools Reopening

Parents are growing more uncertain about sending their children to school despite many school districts around the country planning on returning to the classroom full-time. New data on parents’ preference for returning to school shows a large discrepancy in political affiliation.

A new survey from Gallup shows 68 percent of Republican parents are in favor of full-time in-person school compared to just 13 percent of Democrats. On the flip side, 41 percent of Democrats are in favor of full-time remote learning compared to just 11 percent of Republicans, while 46 percent of Democrats are in favor of a mix of in-person and remote compared to just 22 percent of Republicans.

Parents who identified as Democrat were much more likely in the survey to say they are “very worried” about their children contracting COVID-19 at school. Republican parents, however, responded with just 9 percent of those saying they are “very worried” about COVID-19 in school, with a majority saying they’re either “not too worried” or “not worried at all.”

The data reaffirms how politicized the COVID-19 virus has become in the U.S., and how an onslaught of misinformation and a lack of understanding has contributed to a polarization in opinion. Ultimately, the CDC has released guidelines on how schools can properly reopen safely during this pandemic. However, Gallup notes that many of these guidelines could be challenging to implement and could require additional funding, which would be another challenge altogether for schools to obtain.