Voting Patterns of Public School Teachers

[H. Ross Peron]

Public school teachers are generally seen as a strong Democratic constituency given their high levels of education, unionization, and status as public employees. Certainly, a majority of them are Democratic voting but some anecdotal evidence suggests a more complicated picture. Keep in mind, most of my knowledge is from my own public school experience in a historically somewhat conservative Orange County (CA) suburb albeit one that has trended Democratic since 2016. The area is racially mixed between Asians, whites, and some Latinos however my teachers were overwhelmingly white.

Elementary school teachers were, of course, overwhelmingly women but many of them were Republicans and espouse conservative views. Middle and high school teachers present a more varied picture. Female teachers, especially those teaching English but also history, were liberal and partisan Democrats. There seems to be a stronger gender gap, however, with many male teachers especially in history and science being Republicans. English teachers tended to be more uniformly liberal regardless of gender. I don't believe there was much of an age gap, though perhaps Gen X women were somewhat more conservative than older Boomer or younger Millennial women. Is there a reason for elementary school teachers being generally more conservative than those teaching higher grades?

[GALeftist]

If I were to take a stab at it, I'd say that elementary school teachers generally require less education than middle and high school teachers. Also anecdotally they were always quite old (though I'm not totally sure why). The few young elementary school teachers I had were always super liberal, though. Anyway, those two things probably influence it.

[H. Ross Peron]

If I were to take a stab at it, I'd say that elementary school teachers generally require less education than middle and high school teachers. Also anecdotally they were always quite old (though I'm not totally sure why). The few young elementary school teachers I had were always super liberal, though. Anyway, those two things probably influence it.

The reverse was true for me-except for my first grade teacher (who retired at the end of my schoolyear), most of my elementary school teachers were younger being in their 20s or 30s at the time.

[StateBoiler]

My U.S. History teacher told me he quit being a member of the teachers' union when they told him to vote for Mondale. That year I had U.S. History was when the Clinton impeachment trials were going on so he allowed us to watch Clinton before Congress, so I got to hear "that depends on your definition of the word is" live.

I'm from a military town in the South, so I joke that the only Democrats there were the blacks and some teachers.

[Young Conservative]

The views of my high school teachers just mirrored the area I was from, and I expect that is similar to everywhere else. Although, it seems like government and environmental science teachers might be more likley to be liberal and economics teachers more likely to be conservative.

[Alcibiades]

I believe that in a place like Alabama, public school teachers are these days considered to be pretty much the only recognisably Democratic bloc beyond African-Americans (maybe throw in some trial lawyers as well).

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Anecdotally in Indiana, it seems like quite a lot of teachers are Republicans, especially in suburban and rural areas. Obviously for the state as a whole, teachers are surely Democrats, and even in heavily-Republican areas, teachers are overrepresented amongst Democrats, but I would not be surprised at all if the vast majority of teachers at most schools in most rural areas were Republicans. It seemed like virtually all elementary teachers were liberal but you definitely got a more mixed group in middle and high school.


However, R-voting teachers are the most likely to defect from the Republican Party over school issues. Education funding has been a major issue in Indiana since 2011, and many otherwise very conservative areas have revolted against GOP legislators over education issues and voters have supported property tax increases by landslide margins.

On a similar note, I think the idea that university professors are virtually all Democrats is also a misconception and skewed by bigger schools that have a reputation for campus leftism and activism. Not just in the business schools, but in other subjects as well, professors at smaller schools simply teach what they teach, often come from the private sector, and view being a professor as a job rather than being some crusade to guard knowledge and liberal values.

I went to Purdue Northwest, which has two campuses in northwest Indiana, one in Hammond (an extremely diverse and heavily Democratic industrial city) and one way out in Westville in rural La Porte County, just south of Michigan City (D-leaning smaller industrial city with far more noncollege, lower-income whites). We could take courses that were offered at either campus, and I took a few online courses that were offered in Westville but required us to make a small trip out there for the final project presentations as well as the exams.

I always got the vibe that the student body was not as Democratic as you would expect and a similar vibe from the professors. Of course it was very strongly Democratic, but I would guess 30% or even 40% of total students + professors would be conservative or R-leaning.

Lots of Republicans go to their local state university as well for business, teaching, nursing, and sciences and still had strongly conservative views, which I think partially refutes the idea of "liberal indoctrination" at universities.

 In fairness to them, I can understand why they perceive universities as liberal indoctrination centers, as I had plenty of friends who went to schools like De Paul or Northwestern in Chicago or the main campus of states schools like IU or Purdue or Ball State, and who got sucked up in the obnoxious social justice-y type campus activism. It's a very alienating experience when I visited them, and I more or less abandoned some friendships as we grew so far apart in our experiences and outlooks.

I'm very grateful I stayed home and went to a non-elite public school and completely understand the people who transfer back home after their first year at big schools where you have this college campus bubble. Probably a lot of conservatives and even more centrist types just keep quiet about anything political/cultural, just as I got the vibe it was not the "acceptable" thing to support Clinton in 2016 or be a member of the local Democratic Party, and this silence contributes to the left-wing bubble feeling, but they're still there in strong numbers.


Again, all of this is just anecdotal.