Ahead of the fall 2021 gubernatorial election in Virginia, then-GOP nominee Glenn Youngkin made it a point to stand up for parents who were visibly angry and tired of far-left education curricula like critical race theory and transgender ‘studies’ being forced on their children.

Youngkin promised that parents would have more of a say as to what their kids were being taught and that he would have their back when it came to opposing divisive, left-wing garbage posing as ‘history’ and ‘social studies.’

And against odds, Youngkin won handily. Republicans also swept the offices of lieutenant governor and attorney general. So much for the ‘influence’ of the left.

And while Youngkin’s pushback on the far left’s educational curriculum is being replicated by parents all across the country as they run for school boards and other elected office, trust in the public school system, in general, has cratered.

“The confidence Americans have in the United States public school system has fallen drastically and is currently close to the all-time low of 26% recorded in 2014, according to a poll released Thursday that also showed a significant gap between the trust Republicans and Democrats have in the schools,” Just the News reported, citing a newly released Gallup survey.

According to the survey, “overall, 28% of Americans say they have a ‘great deal/quite a lot’ of confidence in the public school system,” the report continued. “Trust has fallen sharply since the all-time high of 62% in 1975, though it briefly rebounded to 41% in 2020. In 2021, the rate of trust fell nearly 10 percentage points to 32%, and dropped again to 28% in 2022.”

The survey also shows the massive differences in trust between the nation’s two major political parties.

Among Democrats, 43 percent say they have confidence in the public school system, while just 14 percent of Republicans do. Among independents, there is a split — just 29 percent have confidence, the survey revealed.

As for the gap between the two major political parties: “The current 29-percentage-point gap between Republicans and Democrats widens the 25-point gap logged last year. The first year that Gallup asked the question (1973), the margin of difference between Democrats and Republicans was only 7 points,” Just the News noted.

The New York Post adds:

The poll suggests the recent controversy over the teaching of critical race theory in public schools — which played a crucial role in Virginia’s gubernatorial election in 2021 — as fueling the divisions.

The poll also indicated that Republicans’ displeasure with the education system has widened dramatically since 2020. 

​”​At the same time, public education has become more politicized, with Republicans more opposed than Democrats to distance learning and student face mask requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic​,” the poll revealed.​ “Debate has also erupted at the national and local levels over school curricula touching on racism, gender theory and sexual orientation,” it said.

And Education Week reported: “While fewer Democrats and Independents expressed confidence in public schools in this year’s annual poll, the rates of support among those respondents have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.”

It should be noted that the Biden regime is doing all it can to protect the Democratic-aligned teachers’ unions who want to preserve the public school system they are using to push their left-wing nonsense.

USA Features News reported in March that the administration “is planning a new regulatory assault on private and charter schools just as more parents are sending their children to them as a means of opting out of public schools that often include what they see as divisive and inappropriate curriculum and materials.”

Fortunately, portions of the administration’s assault have already been blunted by federal courts, but we know from experience that court decisions Democrats don’t like aren’t considered permanent obstacles.