A majority of Americans say they are in favor of their children learning about the legacy of slavery and the ongoing effects of racism in the United States, according to a new poll released Friday.
Sixty-three percent of Americans polled say they are in favor of their children learning about the lasting effects of racism and slavery in the country, while 30 percent of people polled say they are opposed to children’s education on the topic. Eight percent were undecided, according to a USA Today-Ipsos poll.
Forty-nine percent of Americans polled said they supported their children learning about “critical race theory,” while 30 percent of parents were against it and 21 percent said they were undecided.
Critical race theory is a decades-old academic field that examines how slavery has had lasting impacts on institutions and policy in the U.S.
The academic theory has largely been criticized by Republicans, who have pushed back against the idea of systemic racism in America.
The results in the USA Today poll were sharply divided along party lines.
Of the Democrats polled, 69 percent of them said that critical race theory should be taught in their child’s school, while 16 percent said they opposed the idea. By comparison, 27 percent of Republicans said they favored the academic theory being taught in their kid’s school. Fifty-two percent were opposed to their children learning about critical race theory.
A Reuters-Ipsos poll in July found that while a majority of Americans favor teaching slavery and racism’s impact on the U.S. to high school students, only 43 percent of those polled said they knew about the critical race theory concept.
The USA Today-Ipsos poll surveyed 2,000 Americans and was conducted from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1. Around 20 percent of those polled are parents of schoolchildren. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.