Political Science

Education v. Political Affiliation

Paige Llewellyn

Overview
Politics are everywhere. It affects life on every level: friendships, familial
relations, among peers, and in interactions with strangers. Differing views on
politics occur at each of these levels and among each of these groups. There
are many variables that can impact a persons political views which can
include age, race, sex, and how he or she was raised. Growing up in different
eras with different values can cause political views to vary among different
age groups. Race and ethnicity can also impact political views in by sharing
an ethnic identity people often tie political views to past treatment of those
they identify with as they seek to receive equal treatment or their culture
entices them to have a certain ideology which affects political positions. With
rise in feminism statistics show that more women are voting for women or
those who demonstrate a support of women. How a person is raised has the
most sub-variables which can play into it. Depending on the background of
family members, political views could change or if ones parents were
extremely opinionated, those opinions could form the opinions of that person
or it could lead them to have different views out of a felt need to spite his or
her parents. Religion can often be a large determining factor in political
stances which can vary greatly depending on how a person was raised.
One of the most interesting factors that could have a serious impact on the
way people think and view the world, and thus form their own political
opinions, ideals, and stances is education. Does education level play a part in
how members of society come to their own conclusions on different
situations? Can a correlation be seen in how much education a person has
received in their life and to what political party they lean to? A school is an
interesting but also extremely telling place to conduct this research to find
the answers to these questions.
Among peers does the general political party they lean seem to be the
same? In high school, especially a public high school, most of the students of
grown up learning the same things in the same classrooms all of their lives.
Some progressed faster than others and showed more promise at a younger
age but the public school system moves these students along their
educational path at roughly the pace. Once a student reaches junior high,
more opportunities show themselves as these kids would then have the
option to take honors classes or to continue at grade level. A wide difference
can then be seen in test scores, in thinking skills, and possibly in political
views. At a middle school age, these students are not likely to have strong

views, if any, on large scale government politics but they are able to form
their own ideas of school politics.
As students continue to progress through school the division between the
honors students and the grade level students often increases as test scores
and thinking skills continue to separate them more and more. The question
is, does this division in learning and educational growth have an impact on a
high school students formation of his or her own political views when they
are more able to understand the grandiose scale of government politics? If
by testing this quandary, it could be found that education does have an
effect on the developing political views, it could be used to impact on the
educational system of the United States to potentially mold these incipient
ideas.

Hypothesis
The two outcomes which seem most likely would be that those who have
progressed further in their education (students enrolled in Advanced
Placement, honors, or Concurrent Enrollment courses) would tend to lean
more towards the Democratic political party than their grade level
counterparts or that these same advanced learning students would be prone
to have political tendencies that align them more the Republican party.
In the case that those students who were enrolled in school courses which
have a higher difficulty and are more demanding are more educated making
them lean towards the Democratic Party, it could reveal a more party with
more advanced thinking. This could mean that as more and more of the
general public receives a higher education more and more Democrats will
begin to fill governments. More seats in congress would be Democratic and
possibly more Democratic presidents would be elected. Results could
demonstrate this outcome not only because as more people are more
educated more people would have views on the Democratic side of the
political spectrum, but because it would then stand to reason that Democrats
who would be running for office would also be more educated. Not only
would that mean that those who are educated share more of the same views
but that the Democratic candidates would be peers, making these educate
peers more likely to vote for someone they see as their equal rather than
below them. As more people are educated, more people are aware of the
issues and it would stand to reason that more of them would be going to the
polls to cast their ballots which would mean the educated population voting
would be Democratic leaning and thus more commonly voting for a
Democratic candidate.

On the other hand, the more educated population could have more
Republican tendencies which could then have to effect that a Democratic
majority would produce for the conservatives. If the less educated population
was the group that more Democratic in nature, it could still prove beneficial
to this party (or the Republican Party if those were the results) as the less
educated population can still be intelligent and aware of current political
events and maintains the right to vote. A less educated party majority could
also mean that voters are more easily persuaded to believe one way or
another as they are guided. If a politician were to know how to best catch the
attention of this population they could potentially convince a large portion of
the voting population to lean their way especially their tendencies are
already mostly aligned with that candidates political affiliation and they
need the votes to rise above an opposing party member. The United States
houses an unrepresentative congress in that the demographics in the bodies
of congress do not equate to those of the general population of American
citizens. Example of this misrepresentation includes a discrepancy between
the age of the American population and the majority of congress. The
median age of Americans is about thirty-eight years old while around eighty
percent of the legislature is fifty years of age or older. Another discrepancy is
in education. Ninety-five percent of congressmen have obtained at least a
four-year college degree, but only about twenty-eight of adult United States
citizens have received a bachelors degree. This difference in education
would mean that the party with a less educated public would have fewer
proponents for the same position which could make it easier for a candidate
to be chosen by their party.
There is a third possible outcome in that neither of these could hold true. The
results could be even and there would be no clear tendency among one
educational peer groups to lean toward one political party more than another
and more frequently than the opposing peer group. In the case that this was
to be the result rendered by the survey, it would demonstrate that education
is not particularly in impactful to a persons political preferences.

Methodology
In determining if participants were more right or left wing leaning, it was
important that they were surveyed using question that a fairly
straightforward political party stance. They also had to be questions which all
of the students surveyed would have a t least a basic understanding of and
the debate between the two the parties on the issues or that they could
easily form a basic opinion on by reading the question and considering their

basic values. This meant that the questions were hot button issues in order
to increase the likelihood that the general student population of the high
school would have heard about and hopefully recently as well. For ease of
analysis, middle ground had to be eliminated.
Choose the answer that most closely fits your views
Do you believe there should be stricter laws and requirements (background
checks, etc.) in order to purchase a firearm?
Yes No
Do you believe that same-sex marriage should be legal?
Yes No
Do you believe it should be easier for immigrants to gain legal work status in
the U.S.?
Yes No
Environmental regulations cost too many jobs and hurt the economy.
Agree Disagree
Do you support the death penalty?
Yes No
Do you think that higher taxes (and more social programs) are better than
lower taxes (and fewer social programs)?
Yes No
Do you support abortion?
Yes No
Political awareness could also have a potential impact. To account for that
variable, students were asked how much time they spent on a weekly basis
with some news source. This survey was then distributed to a mix of
advanced course students and grade level students, filled out anonymously
and then returned to be counted.

Results

DIFFICULTY OF SCHEDULE v. POLITICAL VIEWS

14
12
10
8

Number of Students

GRADE LEVEL

ADVANCED

2
0

The results demonstrate a positive correlation between advanced course

students and leaning to the Democratic Party with double the amount of
students favoring this political party as their grade level counterparts. These
students demonstrate a tendency to be more conservative in their political
beliefs with a greater number of students from this peer group having
Democratic views rather than just leaning towards the party. A negative
correlation is shown between the advanced course students and the
Republican Party as numbers begin to decrease as the political spectrum
shifts to the right. Fewer students lean Republican than can be considered
Democratic and even fewer of the students who were surveyed share in the
political beliefs relating to the Republican Party.
For the grade level class peer group, there is a negative correlation with the
left wing of the political spectrum but a positive correlation with the
moderate left wing. The numbers of students in this peer group who are
leaning to the right wing of spectrum but do not side with the Republican
Party decreases. These numbers pick back up as there is an increase in the
amount of surveyed student who can be found on the right wing of politics
with their views on current situations.
Both peer groups have a large portion of their students who lean Democratic
with their political stance. This could in part be because of their age.

Millennials tend to be considered as forward thinking and free thinking. The

Democratic Partys views often contradict traditional ways of thinking and
values that the Republican Party more commonly adheres to. Because these
students are part of this more conservative generation their views could be
influenced by the modern forward thinking culture that is extremely
prevalent in the world today. For this reason, the students of both groups
lean to left wing politics, but most of the students are not on the left end of
the spectrum. This could be in part because they are still in their teenage
years and do not have hardened views and they do seem to be more open to
new ideas which would allow them to consider and favor positions taken by
the opposite party.
The grade level course group of students has a majority of their population
on the right end of politics. This result could be contributed to how they were
raised and a dependence on the political values of their parents. As these
students live a Utah, a Republican state, it is likely that their parents side
with the Republican Party. Being raised in a household where the dominant
view is Republican and possibly being without sufficient information and
knowledge to form new opinions of their own, they continue to think as their
parents have taught or influenced them to think.

Conclusion
The majority of the students who were surveyed were Democratic leaning,
but most of the students who were enrolled in grade level course were
Republican. These results most likely encounter confounding variables
because all the students live in Utah, a Republican state, and they all live
near Salt Lake City which is a blip on the Democratic radar. This conservative
energy could be influencing students to lean more Democratic. The sample
size was also extremely small. A larger sample in diverse places could be a
more telling sample.