Common wisdom among conservatives is that educators are a bunch of bleeding heart liberals, bent on turning every student, they can sink their commie claws into, over to the dark side of socialistic uniformity and collectivism. But is that really so. What are the actual political leanings of educators and how is that different from the aforementioned conservative wisdom?
In 2017 the educators’ journal EducationWeek conducted a survey of 1122 teachers, school and district leaders to find that out – among many other things.
The result? Conservative common wisdom is wrong: Only 29% identify as liberal (5% of those as very liberal), while 27% say they are conservative (3% very much so), and 43% consider themselves moderate.
So, why the stark contrast between conservatives’ believes about educators and the facts? Tribalism. Another modern conservative attitude is that if you are not with them, you must be against them. Against them means “liberal.” Educators, while not barely more liberal than the country at large, are viewing conservative politics, which means the Republican agenda and for the last four years Trump’s agenda, as bad. 75% of these educators gave Republican education policies either a “D” or an “F”, while the same question about Democratic policies only yielded those grades from 45% of the surveyed.
The point being: Not everyone disliking conservative education policies – in particular K-12 – is a liberal. They just do not like the policies.
