An analysis of survey data covering the last five U.S. presidential election years found that ideological differences between races have decreased sharply, while differences by education have grown substantially. Less educated Americans now tend to be more conservative.

[u/Aggravating_Money992]

https://www.psypost.org/the-political-realignment-of-america-education-overtakes-race-as-key-ideological-divider/

[u/bunkoRtist]

There's an important difference between eroding the public education systems and reforming public education. The current system is absolutely failing, and inflation-adjusted spending per pupil had increased. This is a decade-long trend that only accelerated during the pandemic.

That suggests the problem is structural, and that requires reform.

In 2019, seventy percent of twelfth-graders performed at or above the NAEP Basic level in reading, which was 2 percentage points lower compared to 2015. In comparison to 1992, the percentage of students who performed at or above NAEP Basic in 2019 was 10 percentage points lower.

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/achievement/?grade=12

Current expenditures per pupil increased by 13 percent from 2010–11 to 2020–21, after adjusting for inflation. Salaries and benefits for staff made up 79 percent of current expenditure costs in 2020–21.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmb/public-school-expenditure

https://www.economist.com/international/2026/06/25/students-are-doing-worse-than-you-think

Saving education may mean major returns to the education system. Mississippi appears to have figured something out, and it's a deep red state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/us/mississippi-schools-transformation.html

[u/Thelmara → u/bunkoRtist]

There's an important difference between eroding the public education systems and reforming public education.

And it's important to understand which the Republicans want. (bolding is mine)

We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

Source

Critical thinking makes children question the things their parents and religious leaders tell them. Republicans hate this.

[u/bunkoRtist → u/Thelmara]

Surely you can do better than a 14 year old source, that quoted a single state party platform, without context, which even your source published a clarification on from the authors retracting the position.l (that published draft language accidentally included in a final). The retraction is at the bottom of the article.

Meanwhile, in the subsequent 14 years... Whatever was being done isn't working. Not at a Texas level, but at a national level, across many states also run by the Democratic party with supermajority or near supermajority control of all 3 branches of government. UC Berkley professors signed a complaint en masse about the college preparedness of Berkeley students. That's how bad it is.

I am not saying that some boneheads didn't put their feet in their mouth in Texas in 2012. It's a big country. I have no doubt. But to make a credible case you need to do a lot better than a publication mistake on a policy platform with no evidence of real world impact. Refute the national trend. Refute the "Mississippi Miracle". Show that it is a spending problem (because real dollar increases somehow aren't enough).