Americans’ satisfaction with K-12 education has fallen to 32%, the lowest level Gallup has recorded in its 27-year trend, while dissatisfaction has climbed to a record 67%.
The September 7, 2026, Walton Family Foundation/Gallup poll shows satisfaction down 11 points over two years, driven largely by a 19-point drop among Democrats since the start of President Trump’s second term. Independents are down 10 points and Republicans down 6 points. Only 20% of respondents rated schools favorably on preparing students to think critically and solve problems.
Any single poll invites the question of whether it’s an outlier. This one isn’t.
A second survey, the most recent available Phi Delta Kappa Poll, released in August 2025, asks a different question and comes from a different pollster. It has Americans grade schools like a report card rather than rate their satisfaction. It finds the same decline under a different name. Just 13% of respondents gave the nation’s public schools an A or B, with scores falling every year since 2017.
A third measure comes from Gallup’s separate 2026 annual survey of confidence in U.S. institutions, released in July 2026, which asks a different question. It’s not about satisfaction or a grade but about how much confidence Americans have in “the public schools” as an institution. That poll puts confidence in schools at 27%, a point above its all-time low.
