Americans are divided on what role religion should play in public school, according to a new poll.
Some 34% say that religion doesn't play enough of a role, 26% say its role is about right, and 26% say it plays too much of a role.
Pollsters asked 1,163 U.S. adult citizens, who were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel. 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.
When breaking down the demographics, a majority of Americans surveyed who say religion is very important to them are especially likely to say religion doesn't play enough of a role in public schools (56%), as are people who identify as Christians (45%).
Views from respondents were also mixed on which religions public schools should teach students about. 38% of Americans say public schools should teach about all religions equally. 12% say public schools should teach about all religions, but give more emphasis to Christianity, while 9% say they should only teach about Christianity. Nearly a third (28%) say they should not teach about any religions.
One interesting find in the poll was that among Christians, only 11% say that public schools should only teach about Christianity. 20% of Christians say they should teach about all religions but give more attention to Christianity, and even more (34%) say they should teach about all religions equally.
For people who identified as atheist, agnostic, or no particular religion, a majority said schools should either teach about all religions equally (40%) or not teach about any religions (41%).
The majority of Americans surveyed are supportive of allowing certain expressions or acknowledgements of religion in schools, including allowing students to wear clothing or jewelry with religious symbols (70% strongly or somewhat support), requiring schools to accommodate students' religious holidays (67%), allowing student-led religious clubs to meet on school property (60%), and allowing time for student prayer or religious reflection (55%).
Another interesting response: Americans are far more likely to support teaching about contraception in sex education classes (75%) than they are to support requiring sex education classes to be abstinence-only (37%).
As the conversation comes up regarding the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, more Americans oppose than support the requirement (50% vs. 31%).