Voters Oppose Explicit Books in Public Schools

An overwhelming majority of voters continue to oppose sexually explicit books in public school libraries, and believe schools have an obligation to inform parents what their children are being taught.

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI) finds that 87% of Likely U.S. voters think it is important that public schools fully inform parents about what is being taught to their children in classrooms, including 62% who say it is Very Important. Just 11% disagree. These findings have barely changed since October 2022. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Seventy percent (70%) of voters are concerned that school-age children are being exposed to sexual material that is not age appropriate, including 50% who are Very Concerned. Only 27% are not concerned about children being exposed to inappropriate sexual material.
“Pornography, sexual indoctrination, and promoting trans ideology have no place in public schools,” said Karen England, president of CRI. “If parents knew how many books contained graphic depictions of sex acts and transgender propaganda, they would pull their kids out immediately.”

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The survey of 1,212 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on September 3-4, 2025 by Rasmussen Reports and the Capitol Resource Institute. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters believe books containing explicit sexual depictions of sex acts, including homosexual sex, should not be present in public high school libraries. The majority opposed to sexually explicit books in public school libraries rises to 74% for middle schools and 81% for elementary schools.

There is broad agreement across political and demographic categories on many of these questions. For example, 66% of whites, 77% of black voters, 82% of Hispanics, and 72% of other minorities are at least somewhat concerned that school-age children are being exposed to sexual material that is not age appropriate. Majorities of Republicans (78%), Democrats (51%) and voters not affiliated with either major party (58%) believe it is Very Important that public schools fully inform parents about what is being taught to their children in classrooms.

Of the Likely Voters in the survey, 27% are parents of school-age children and 26% are grandparents of school-age children. Sixty-three percent (63%) of parents and 53% of grandparents are Very Concerned that school-age children are being exposed to sexual material that is not age appropriate. Seventy-three percent (73%) of parents and 64% of grandparents believe it is Very Important that public schools fully inform parents about what is being taught to their children in classrooms.

Among other findings of the Rasmussen Reports/CRI survey:

– Seventy-four percent (74%) of parents and 54% of grandparents are at least somewhat concerned that public school libraries contain material that is sexually age-inappropriate for the students in school.

– Forty percent (40%) of parents and 49% of grandparents are opposed to public schools teaching children about homosexual lifestyles.

– Forty-six percent (46%) of parents and 54% of grandparents are opposed to public schools teaching children about transsexualism.

– Fifty-four percent (54%) of parents and 79% of grandparents are opposed to public schools teaching children about how to perform sex acts.

– Eighty-six percent (86%) of parents and 74% of grandparents believe it is important that parents have control over what books are present in public school libraries.

– Forty-one percent of parents (41%) and 50% ov grandparents believe public school students should not be exposed to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual lifestyles before age 14.

Capitol Resource Institute’s initiative, Take Back the Classroom, documents which states, districts, and schools house these explicit materials. England, CRI’s president, criticized the American Library Association (ALA) for misleading polls and promoting books like This Book Is Gay, which teaches minors how to use dating apps and Craigslist for sexual hookups.

“Seventy-one percent of voters oppose schools teaching kids how to use dating apps,” England said. “The same goes for books that push radical gender ideology on children. The ALA knows parents don’t support this, which is why they try to smear them as ‘book burners.’ It’s intimidation meant to silence families.”

More voters now see the American economy as fair, including more who see it as fair to women and minorities.

A majority of voters consider President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to fight crime in the nation’s capital a success, and favor him repeating the measure in other cities. 

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to the public as well as to Platinum Members.

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