In the latest Mood of the Nation poll, “90 percent believe that schools have a responsibility to teach about slavery. That group is split, however, on whether contemporary racial issues should be taught,” write American Public Media Research Lab’s Elisabeth Gawthrop and Craig Helmstetter.
Among the other key findings:
- 66 percent of Republicans believe that schools should teach about historical slavery, but not contemporary race relations.
- 59 percent of born-again Christians and 59 percent of Republicans say that parents of school children should have “a great deal of influence” over the teaching of slavery and race in local schools. Among Democrats, that figure is 24 percent.
- About 25 percent of Americans believe that state departments of education and local school boards should have “a great deal of influence” over how slavery and race are taught in public schools.
Read Gawthrop and Helmstetter’s full recap here.