Political strife is harming California teens' high school experience, study says

California is often cited as a bastion of left-leaning politics, with an electorate that voted for Joe Biden over Donald Trump by a nearly 2-1 ratio in 2020.

But a study of the state’s high schools shows that California campuses are just as likely to experience political strife as those in other, more polarized states.

“The surprise here is not that California is different, it is that our public schools are experiencing similar levels of political attacks and conflict with what we have seen across the nation,” said John Rogers, a study co-author and director of the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.

The study, by researchers at UCLA and UC Riverside, polled 150 principals from California high schools in “blue” congressional districts, where Donald Trump received less than 45% of the vote in the 2020 presidential election, and “purple” districts, where Trump received from 45% to 54.9% of the vote.

Trump received greater than 55% of the vote in only two California congressional districts, which were not included in the study.

The study was conducted as part of a nationwide survey of high school principals.



https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/latino-life/story/2023-03-15/political-division-hostility-are-harming-high-schoolers-experiences-in-california-new-study-says