A majority of parents are okay with teaching on gender identity and sexual orientation in schools, a new poll finds

A new poll shared exclusively with Insider highlights parents' views on classroom instruction about race and gender, both topics at the center of culture war battles in US politics that could determine control of Congress and state legislatures.

• A National Parents Union poll highlights parents' views on race and gender classroom instruction.
• Majorities of parents support classroom instruction about gender identity or sexual orientation.
• But only about a third say it should be encouraged.

Majorities of parents support classroom instruction about gender identity or sexual orientation in K-12 public schools, but only about a third say it should be encouraged, according to a new poll shared exclusively with Insider.

Parents of younger children were more resistant to such instruction, with 35% opposing it in elementary schools compared to 25% in middle and high schools, the National Parents Union survey of 1,000 parents of K-12 public school students found. Nearly a third said it should be "allowed, but not encouraged" in middle and high schools compared to 27% in elementary school.

The opposition from more than a third of parents with young children "tells me that there hasn't been enough communication with parents so that they trust schools to be able to engage in this conversation, that there's a lot of fear about it, there are a lot of cultural issues around it, and that there needs to be a further discussion around what this curriculum is, how it's introduced, at what ages is introduced," Keri Rodrigues, National Parents Union co-founder and president, told Insider.

The survey, conducted March 18-21 by Echelon Insights, highlights parents' views on classroom instruction about race and gender, both topics at the center of culture war battles in politics as parents seek a greater say in their children's education. Most parents thought they (87%) along with teachers (88%) should have a lot or some influence on what and how public schools teach, compared to 60 percent for state legislators.

Republicans have targeted the teaching of gender issues and critical race theory – a college-level framework for studying racism in US laws — to win votes with their base, arguing that some lessons go too far and pushing for restrictions on what's taught in schools. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 GOP presidential contender, just signed a controversial bill, called "Don't Say Gay" by critics, that would restrict classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in schools.

The poll showed parents were more enthusiastic about the teaching of race in schools, with more than half saying teaching about racial inequality, both in America's past and present, should be encouraged. Nearly 60% said more US history lessons should be encouraged about historical figures from racial or ethnic groups who may have been omitted from past lessons.

Parents were also more encouraging of students reading books by authors from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds (60%) compared to reading books that include stories about LGBTQ people (32%).

Of the survey respondents, 34% leaned or considered themselves Republicans while 51% are Democrats or Democrat-leaning. 

Rodrigues said the poll results show that, as people on the "radicalized" left and right try to speak for parents, the majority of parents are in the middle on issues like the teaching of history.

"It's very clear that they want the truth to be taught, that they want the lessons that they were taught in school in addition to new and different perspectives to be introduced, and they're just not as radicalized as I think a lot of folks in the media would portray," she said.