Are Americans happy with public education system? Poll finds record-low satisfaction

A record-breaking share of Americans are now unhappy with the country’s public education system, according to new polling.

In the latest Gallup survey released Feb. 5, 73% of respondents said they were very or somewhat dissatisfied with the quality of the U.S. public education system — marking the highest figure recorded since the organization began asking the question in 2001.

In contrast, just 24% of respondents expressed some or significant satisfaction — which is the lowest share on record.

Part of a long-term trend

The results of the poll, conducted with 1,005 U.S. adults between Jan. 2 and 15, are the continuation of a long-term trend.

While there have been slight ups and downs over the years, the general pattern has been one of gradual decline in satisfaction with the standards of public education.

In 2001, 40% of Americans were satisfied with the quality of taxpayer funded schooling. This figure dropped to 37% in 2012.

The biggest shift came between 2021 and 2022, when the satisfaction rate dropped seven points — from 35% to 28%. It then dropped again by four points — from 29% to 24% — between 2024 and 2025.

“This isn’t that much of an outlier, long-term,” Sherman Dorn, a professor at Arizona State University, who researches education policy, told McClatchy News.

He cited another longitudinal poll — conducted by Phi Delta Kappa — which asked respondents every year between 1981 and 2023 to grade local and national public schools.

“Two things stand out from that long series,” Dorn said. “For many decades, Americans have been far more satisfied with the schools they know personally than their opinion of K-12 education nationally…”

Second, “views of education nationally have been pretty stable, on the unfavorable end.”

As to what factors could be responsible for the latest dip in satisfaction, Dorn demurred.

“I’m skeptical that we can draw much of a conclusion about a long-term trend,” he said.

Broader dissatisfaction

But, public education — which President Donald Trump has targeted for a major overhauling — isn’t the only sector of American life in which public opinion has soured.

The latest Gallup poll, which has a margin of error of 4 percentage points, found the satisfaction rate for numerous other aspects of society remain underwater.

For example, just 25% of respondents said they were content with “the size and influence of major corporations,” while 72% said they were dissatisfied.

Similarly, 29% expressed satisfaction with “the availability of affordable healthcare.” By comparison, 69% said they were dissatisfied.

Among the areas where satisfaction surpassed dissatisfaction were: “the nation’s military strength and preparedness,” “the overall quality of life” and “the position of women in the nation.”

This story was originally published February 7, 2025 at 9:42 AM with the headline "Are Americans happy with public education system? Poll finds record-low satisfaction."