Learning Got Complicated But parents’ view of the schools is not ifty-three million children are enrolled in the nation’s schools, from kindergarten through the twelvth grade. Thirty-one million families have at least one child in kindergarten, elementary, middle, or high school. Nearly seven million teachers and administrators work in those schools. Education is an enormous industry in the United States and one that has been severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. But don’t mistake disruption for dissatisfaction. It may be hard to fathom in these divisive times, but parents are the biggest boosters of their child’s school. According to surveys, parents aren’t just satisfied with their child’s school. The majority (64 percent) are very satisfied, according to the Na-
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AMERICANDEMOGRAPHICS I DECEMBER 2020
tional Center for Education Statistics’ Parent and Family Involvement in Education survey (Parent and Family Involvement in Education: 2019). Most parents are very satisfied with their child’s school regardless of whether it is public or private. They are very satisfied no matter whether their child is in kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, or high school. They are very satisfied with large schools and small schools. They are very satisfied whether the school is in a city, a suburb, or a rural area. And that’s not all. Most parents are also very satisfied with their child’s teachers, very satisfied with the school’s academic standards, and very satisfied with the way the school communicates with them.
