Education remains closely connected to how Americans think about opportunity, mobility, and the future of their children. Yet public views of the K-12 system suggest that the importance Americans place on education is accompanied by questions about whether the system is delivering the experience families value. According to the 2026 Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream-Gallup American Dream Study, 92% of Americans say obtaining a quality education is important to the American Dream. At the same time, Gallup reports that 32% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of K-12 education in the U.S., the lowest level recorded since the measure began in 1999.
Those findings provide a broader context for a question that extends beyond satisfaction with schools themselves: How much educational choice is actually available to families in different communities?
