As Polarization Deepens, What Students Learn—and How Schools Operate—Now Depends Heavily On State Politics

State politics are increasingly shaping classroom content, school policy and the structure of public education, producing sharply different experiences for students depending on where they live. Conservative and liberal approaches now diverge on issues from race and gender instruction to parental notification, religious displays and school choice.

How The Divide Shows Up

Debates over what belongs in classrooms have grown more intense, and policies enacted in one state are sometimes explicitly prohibited in another. The clearest examples concern gender and transgender-related rules: some states require teachers to use pronouns tied to biological sex, while others protect students’ access to preferred pronouns and ban staff from being forced to notify parents.

Recent state-level developments illustrate the split. In Maryland, a middle school was permitted to observe and teach about "Transgender Awareness Week." In Florida, an appeals court upheld a law that requires teachers to use pronouns aligned with biological sex. In Texas, two universities issued guidance restricting classroom discussion of race and gender and asked professors to seek special approval to address those topics. And California passed a law preventing districts from requiring faculty to notify parents if a student begins using a different pronoun at school.

Books, Religion And The Culture Wars

Book removals remain a recurring front in the fight over curricula. The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear a challenge to local officials in Llano County, Texas, who removed several books addressing race and gender from school shelves.

Some GOP-led states have also pushed to insert religious texts into classrooms: Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas sought to mandate copies of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, though those efforts suffered legal setbacks this year. Civil-liberties advocates warn such moves risk eroding church-state separation; at the same time, advocacy groups and local clergy are mounting opposition in affected communities.

School Choice And Structural Change

Beyond curriculum, the structure of schooling is shifting. A majority of Republican-led states have adopted broad school choice programs, congressional Republicans secured a federal tax credit to support choice scholarships, and 12 states now have universal school choice. Americans for Prosperity reports that roughly 50 percent of students nationwide have some access to a school choice program.

Education analysts say expanded choice could produce fundamentally different state-by-state systems over time, though the ultimate impact on public schools remains uncertain.

Voices From The Debate

Rick Hess, American Enterprise Institute: "The divide here is partly between philosophies of school improvement. A generation of Republican state leaders feel able to drive large changes without having to ask unions or colleges."

Kevin Carey, New America: "The kinds of books and lessons students encounter vary a lot by state. Regional differences in teaching topics like the Civil War and Civil Rights Movement are longstanding, and today’s disputes are new examples of that pattern."

Rachel Laser, Americans United for Separation of Church and State: "Some of the most serious church-state separation issues are appearing in deeply conservative states, but we also work locally with parents and faith leaders to push back against those measures."

Jon Valant, Brookings Institution: "When universal school choice programs have had more time to grow, we may see very big differences—fundamentally different education systems—from state to state."

As these conflicts continue, parents, teachers and higher-education faculty are reconsidering where they work and where they send their children. Whether the current trajectory will narrow or deepen the divide remains an open question, but for now the lesson is clear: geography increasingly determines what students learn and how their schools operate.

Original reporting and examples were drawn from recent state court rulings, university guidance documents and public statements by education policy experts. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc.