Amid heated debate over political indoctrination in schools, new national data find teachers are generally more supportive of teaching patriotic concepts than parents or the public—and the majority believe the United States should be portrayed positively in school.
The findings come from an analysis of nationally representative polls of more than 1,000 K-12 teachers, more than 1,200 American parents, and more than 1,200 adult Americans conducted in the spring of 2025, and were published in the journal Education Next. The polls themselves were conducted by EdChoice, a nonprofit advocacy organization supporting school choice, and the Morning Consult Public Opinion Tracker.
More than 80% of K-12 teachers thought it was “very” or “extremely” important to teach students about the Constitution’s core values, and 62% found it similarly crucial to teach that America is a fundamentally good country. In both cases, teachers were more likely than parents or the public at large to favor teaching these concepts.
The findings undercut a claim from conservative pundits that “radical leftist” teachers are imposing their views on children and bolster other research suggesting that U.S. history classes aren’t hotspots of indoctrination.
“It’s become a bit of a Republican talking point: … President Trump saying that our children are taught in schools to hate their own country,” said Brian Kisida, an associate professor in the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Missouri and the lead author of the analysis. “On average, teachers are more likely to vote Democrat—but if you look at the distribution, teachers have more moderate opinions than the general public across a broad range of political topics.”
Across every political affiliation, teachers were more likely than the public at large to favor presenting the United States as “fundamentally good.” While teachers who identified as Republicans were more likely than those who considered themselves Democrats or independents to think it important to present the United States favorably, a majority of teachers of all political stripes agreed.
Democratic teachers were significantly less likely than Republican teachers to consider it “very” or “extremely” important to teach students to be patriotic and loyal to the United States, though.
While younger teachers, those ages 18 to 34, were less likely than older teachers to favor patriotic education, they were still significantly more sympathetic to it than other millennials and Generation Z adults.
President Donald Trump has critiqued so-called “radical leftist” civics and history instruction and called for “patriotic education” during both of his administrations. In his first term, the Trump administration launched the 1776 Commission, whose 2021 report concluded that schools portrayed U.S. history in racialized and overly negative ways, an assertion other historians have disputed. In the years since, 20 states have imposed bans or restrictions on how teachers talk about racism or other “divisive concepts” in class.
EdNext’s analysis, however, found that a little more than a third of K-12 teachers thought that the United States should be presented as a “fundamentally racist country"—again, lower than the shares of K-12 parents and the public who thought so.
“The myth of the far-left indoctrinating teachers is just that: It’s a myth,” Kisida said. “The idea that teachers have the time to get into political things in the classroom is wildly disconnected from what most teachers’ life is like.”
Teachers have practical concerns about teaching civics
Regardless of their personal or professional civic beliefs, many teachers find it difficult and fraught to engage students in deep conversations about issues of public debate.
Both Democratic and Republican teachers were less likely than similarly affiliated members of the public to think it important to teach students to question government actions and policies. Only teachers who identified as independents favored encouraging students to question the U.S. government more than similar members of the public.
“It brings us full circle,” Kisida said. “If there’s a national narrative, which I think is untrue, that teachers are anti-America, then it sends a shockwave of fear to teachers that they should probably just avoid difficult topics altogether.”
Last month, the U.S. Department of Education announced that “patriotic education” would be a priority for future competitive grants. It also launched America 250 Civics—a coalition associated with several national conservative groups, including Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the slain activist Charlie Kirk—to develop educational materials related to the country’s 250th anniversary next year.
Kisida contends that the administration’s focus on teacher professional development “completely misses the actual problems that we’re facing with [civics] education"—namely, that schools do not spend enough time on the subject or assess it in meaningful ways.
While public debate over civics has increased in recent years, formal civics education is still limited nationwide. Only four states—Idaho, Louisiana, Virginia, and West Virginia—require students to take a full-year civics class and pass a civics test to graduate, according to a 2024 study. Another 16 states require students to take a half-year civics course and pass a test to graduate.
“We need to focus a lot less on telling students to get involved and giving them basic trivia about how the government works,” he said, “and shift toward a deeper exploration of what it means to be a citizen in a democracy, and what norms and values and dispositions help us hold this experiment together.”
