c-span now are free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. >> by a 32-28 vote, the arizona house of representatives has agreed to repeal a law banning a portion. the state senate must vote to repeal the bill before the ban is knocked up to the old law was revived on ri9 and unless the senate votes to takes action, could take effect within 60 days of the ruling. >> is the vice president for ed choice, here to talk about team views on k-12 education. what is ed choice? guest: it is a nonprofit

national bipartisan organization launched in 1996. our mission is to advance freedom, opportunity and choice for all k-12 students and for them to lead successful lives in a stronger society. we seek to build awareness and understanding of school choice issues and the broader k-12 education ecosystem that can empower families to access and choose and the learning environment that best meets the needs of their children. we inform policymakers, peer groups, education leaders and entrepreneurs, public policy and legal affairs, medication advocacy, workshops, trainings and outreach. and i lead a research team. host: your group conducted a survey that we are talking about this morning.

why did you want to do the survey? guest: this is the eighth time we have surveyed teenagers in the u.s., a series of surveys we started back in the fall of 2020 at the height of the pandemic. we felt it was very important to in addition to all the polling that we do of the public and k-12 school parents and teachers, we wanted to get a better understanding of where teenagers were and how they were adapting during the pandemic. and then really commit to longer-term syria's so we can see any changes over time -- commit to longer-term areas so we can see any changes over time. it was a better idea to get

information about students and help them towards their future careers and also to see to what degree they feel their schooling experiences have been positive or negative and if there are any questions we can ask in order to better say, what can be done to help increase the positive experiences they are having in school and in learning, and also how to mitigate or address some of the negative areas that we have seen in our polling. host: when you quote results of your poll. 78% most or all classmates are bored. 19% say most classmates want to be in school, only 19%. guest: those are the negative

findings i think we can all come together and feel that we need to do better for students and to provide them the best learning experiences in high school and even in the late middle school as well so that they can thrive and learn and be well educated. those are some findings that concern us. my colleagues have it written about this in the last couple of weeks after we released a poll. other surveys have found some negatives. it is not that surprising. we were all teenage at one time and had gone to middle school and high school and had a range of experiences. those levels seem particularly high.

that is on the one side. it wasn't all negative and the most recent polling. we had some broader views and good news that teens and average appeared to be happier than they were at the start of the school year. so some broad indicators, social, emotional, self advocacy, types of questions and they appear to be more positive than they were the last time we surveyed it teens back at the beginning of the school year. so that is some positive and good news in the survey but yes, there are some things that are definitely concerning we should all be thinking about in terms of how we can improve the educational experiences of teens. host: that is the conversation we want to have with viewers,

improving the educational experience for teens. parents and students dial in at (202) 748-8000, educators (202) 748-8001, all others (202) 748-8002. you can text at >> "washington journal" continues. -- at (202) 748-8003. you sound -- found 78% use social media and 40% said it had an negative impact on their mental health. is there a link between the negative numbers you sought and social media? guest: the polling we do in the survey we cannot make that direct link and causal link

there. we can infer and i think the descriptive numbers you cited are concerning and to the degree that it is impacting the mental and physical health of teenagers and we have seen this, the pew research center looked at some of these questions around the teenagers use of social media and cell phones and the questions and topics were different but the holistic picture raises red flags in terms of where teenagers and how they feel about social media, cell phones. also in the schools. they have different ideas about

an average view, access to social media and cell phones differently. one question we asked was what is the earliest age someone, a child, that should have access to cell phones or to social media and the teens in our survey were much more likely to say that children can be a little younger to have a cell phone or smartphone, but the vast majority said a student or child should be 13 years old or older to be able to access social media. there is even some recognition on teens' part on the effects that it can be having on children. host: what out absenteeism, 13% said ty have already missed 1plus days of school.

this meets the definition of chronic absenteeism. the highest is for female students, 16%. lgbtq students 18%. what do you make of those numbers and why? guest: this is, consistent with other research that has been done in different ways and methods and looking at chronic absenteeism which has been in the headlines and something that has been just being discussed and considered in school districts of all types around the country. that 13% number, one thing to consider is the survey was conducted at the end of february and early march, three quarters of the way through the school year and we already had 13% of teenagers self reporting 15 plus days of absences.

with a few more months to go you would expect that 13% to be higher at the end of the school year. we also asked them how they see their closest friends and classmates and what proportion of those classmates are missing 15 plus days and it is a higher number. their perception is their peers are missing school being more frequently absent at higher rates so it is 19%. the numbers are a little bit down since our last and when you compare not only when teens say themselves in self-report for themselves and what they observes of classmates and friends, but we asked a similar

question to parents and our monthly tracking poll and we asked parents if they had a child with 15 or more absences and roughly at the same time we were surveying teenagers and only 3% of parents reported the absences. we are seeing a difference in what parents and teenagers report. we fielded a survey of teachers that we will be reporting out in a couple of weeks and asked what they are seeing in the classroom and how their students are and it will be interesting to see what their observations and perceptions are of absenteeism because this issue is not going away. it was an issue and a challenge for school leaders and

policymakers before the pandemic but when it hit, it exacerbated the problem. even though others have reported chronic absenteeism has gone down a bit since the peak in 2022, but levels currently are still higher than they were before the pandemic. this is an issue that won't be going away and something we will continue to ask. host: they looked at the results of the survey when they asked teens why there was this chronic absenteeism and 64% of teens surveyed sd school is boring inclin69% of black teens, 59% s all of their student use cell phones in class. some said if you are none of the classmates want to be in school. robert in new york, welcome to the conversation. caller: my question is how do

you purse out on your statistics boredom of previous generations? i graduated 51 years ago and our classes were boring also. but we had the hope in the future and our parents would say, this is your job, you go to school and you have to learn and

>> i'm a substitute teacher. when i taught florida students had gun racks, so the fear is a

huge specter for students. we had an active shooter drill, something that never would have occurred to us in the 60's. the possible threat of violence is traumatic. a second big change, i would like to know how many people can rattle off the names of substitute teacher's. the expectation, they could be excellent teachers but i feel entitled to my days off. i don't know if that impacts my

reality. a third change is family structure, the biggest factor. i had another student tell me that his parents are getting a divorce. that is so common today and when i look back i know of almost no homes that do not have both parents and the home.

>> one thing we can look at is parents in the home. there is increasing discussion about inflexibility because of expectations, rules, regulations from -- whether it is from the school or the state or the federal level, this is an area, something that we are planning to do more research. but also, coming out of the

pandemic, the challenges they may have maintaining the profession, we ask if teachers are likely to look, that has been stable but it seems really high that they would think about another career. indirectly, that would impact students. on the violence and perception of violence, we ask a question about if the teen is concerned

about a mass shooting, teenagers are less concerned than parents. so less than a third of teens say they are extremely or very concerned about violence. half of parents are concerned about bullying, it does not seem like schools are doing a good job addressing bullying. one third say their school is doing a good job. that has been an issue for generations. [applause] >>