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Gallup: Far fewer parents want children back to school full-time

A teacher demonstrates during a protest outside the St. Louis Public School headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., on July 13. Teachers and faculty haven't been told what rules are in place for student and teacher safety when classes reopen on August 24. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
A teacher demonstrates during a protest outside the St. Louis Public School headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., on July 13. Teachers and faculty haven't been told what rules are in place for student and teacher safety when classes reopen on August 24. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 3 (UPI) -- The number of parents in the United States who want to send their children back to school full-time this fall has dramatically fallen in recent weeks, a new Gallup survey showed Monday.

According to the poll, 36% of parents want their children to return to full-time, in-school learning, a decline of 20% from late May and early June.

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Another 36% prefer a mix of in-person and distance learning, and 28% want full-time, remote learning.

In late May and early June, just 7% wanted distance learning full-time.

The poll also showed that nearly two-thirds of parents said they're either very worried (27%) or somewhat concerned (37%) about their children catching COVID-19 in school. That's an increase of 18%.

"Thus, to a large degree, the shift away from-person learning reflects the increased worry among parents since late May and early June, when U.S. coronavirus infections were much lower than today," Gallup wrote.

Politically, 42% of Democratic parents are "very worried" about their child getting the coronavirus, while just 9% of Republican parents said the same. Conversely, 68% of Republican parents want their children in full-time, in-person schooling this fall, compared to 13% of Democratic parents.

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Gallup said it polled more than 1,000 U.S. parents for the survey, which has a margin of error of 6 points. Gallup said margins for subgroups are higher.

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