Over the past year, many Republicans have repeatedly claimed that education has run amok under Democratic control and that parents need more say in the classroom. There have been debates over school closures, masking, transgender students competing in school sports, and how teachers talk about race, gender and sexuality.
You could say that education has become something of a wedge issue — in other words, an issue that parties use to try to divide the opposing party to shake loose new voters. In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, Galen Druke speaks with political science professors Sunshine Hillygus and Patrick Egan about the history of wedge issues and how they have shaped U.S. politics.
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