Most parents are glad to see summer end. Among American parents of children in grades K-12, 58% say they usually feel very or somewhat happy when summer ends and their children return to school in the fall, while 21% say they feel sad, according to a new YouGov poll. Americans rate the K-12 schools they attended themselves more highly than they rate today's public schools. Americans' biggest concerns about their local public schools include students not meeting learning objectives and bullying. A smaller but growing share worry about students having too much access to classroom technology.

How Americans rate schools

76% of Americans say the K-12 schools they went to growing up did a very or somewhat good job. Americans’ ratings of public schools today are lower: 59% say public schools in their area do a good job, while 52% say the same of public schools in the country as a whole.

Of the 71% of Americans who say they mostly attended public school for elementary school, middle school, and high school, 80% say the schools they attended did a good job, compared to 64% among those who never attended public school.

What Americans worry about in their local schools

The survey asked respondents how concerned they are about 19 issues in local public schools. Several academic and safety concerns top the list: 84% of Americans say they are very or somewhat concerned about students not meeting learning objectives, 83% about bullying, 80% about peer pressure, 78% about depression and anxiety among students, and 76% about violence. Concern is lowest for too much parent involvement (33%).

YouGov has asked Americans about concerns in their local public schools four times since 2022 — in 2022, 2023, 2025, and this year — with 14 of the issues included every time.

Since 2022, the share of Americans who are very or somewhat concerned that local public schools give students too much access to classroom technology has risen to 48% from 32%, an increase of 17 percentage points. Over the same period, concern about a lack of access to classroom technology fell to 51% from 62%, a drop of 11 points. The two measures were 30 points apart in 2022 and are now within 3 points of each other.

Those are the two largest changes among the 14 issues asked about in all of the four similar surveys YouGov has run on the topic since 2022. Concern for no other issue changed by more than 5 points since 2022, and concern about students being indoctrinated with conservative ideas — up 5 points, to 53% from 49% — was the only other issue concern to rise by more than 3 points.

— Carl Bialik contributed to this article

See the results for this survey

Methodology: This YouGov poll was conducted online on August 5 - 9, 2026 among 1,089 U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4 percentage points.

Image: Getty (Maskot)

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