For the first time in history, students of color make up the majority (50.2 percent) of children in public schools nationwide. But a new survey says that parents of Black and Latino kids have little faith that the American education system has their children’s best interests at heart.

“New Education Majority: Attitudes and Aspirations of Parents and Families of Color,” a new study from The Leadership Conference Education Fund and Anzalone Liszt Grove Research, reveals exactly what people of color like—and dislike—about their local schools. To gather the data, researchers conducted phone interviews with 400 Black and 400 Latino parents and guardians who are raising children ages 5 to 18. (Researchers note that they lacked the resources to survey Asian American and Native American families, but plan to include them in future iterations of the study.)

Key findings:

• 83 percent of Black respondents and 61 percent of Latinos think their schools receive less funding than their White counterparts
   
• 84 percent of Latinos and 90 percent of Blacks think teachers need to hold students to higher standards and challenge them more
   
• 66 percent of Blacks feel their kids receive a lower quality education than White students; among Latinos 45 percent thought it was substandard, while 45 percent though it was the same
   
• 53 percent of Blacks think U.S. schools don’t do a good job of preparing their kids for the future, and 33 percent believe they are not even “really trying to educate Black students”
   
• 56 percent of Latinos and 55 percent of Blacks think parents have “a lot of power” to change their schools

 

Read the full study here.