(NewsNation) — Teachers and parents have different views on teaching controversial topics in schools and how much influence governments should have over curriculums, a new report shows.

New data from the RAND American Teacher panel and surveys of teens and adults examined how teachers, parents and teens felt about teaching topics like gender identity, sexual orientation and racism and racial inequality.

Teachers on race and gender

More than half of teachers (53%) said laws regulating how schools teach controversial topics like race, sexual orientation or gender identity, has not had an impact on their job, while 41% said those debates have had a negative impact and just 4% said the impact was positive.

Teachers also overwhelmingly said they don’t have enough influence in what is taught in schools, with 71% saying that, while 58% said state governments have too much influence over schools.

A majority of teachers, 64%, said students should learn the legacy of slavery still affects Black people in society today, while 23% said students should learn slavery was a part of history but does not have an impact today. Eight percent of teachers said students shouldn’t be taught about slavery at all.

While most teachers supported teaching about slavery, half of teachers surveyed said students shouldn’t learn about gender identity in school. A third thought students should learn about gender identity, including that someone can be a boy or girl even if that is different from their sex assigned at birth, while 14% said students should be taught assigned sex at birth determines gender.

Elementary school teachers were more likely to say students shouldn’t learn about gender identity at school at 62%, compared to 45% of middle school and 35% of high school teachers.

A majority of teachers (60%) said parents should not be able to opt out of children learning about racism or inequality even if their personal beliefs differ from what is taught, while just 33% say parents should not be able to opt out of their children learning about sexual orientation or gender identity.

These topics were more likely to come up in middle and high school than in elementary classrooms, with 21% of teachers saying LGBTQ topics come up sometimes and 8% saying they come up often and 56% of teachers saying racism and racial inequality came up at least sometimes and 21% saying the topic came up often.

Racism and racial inequality

Parents were more evenly divided than teachers on these topics, with 49% saying students should learn that slavery still has an impact while 42% thought students should be taught slavery has no impact on Black Americans today.

Teens are divided as well, with nearly half of teens saying they would rather learn that slavery still impacts Black Americans in society today and four in ten preferring to learn that slavery does not have an impact.

When it comes to Influencing what their children learn, 34% of parents think they should be able to opt out of their about racism or inequality.

LGBTQ issues

When it comes to gender identity, 37% of parents said students shouldn’t learn about the topic in school, 31% said students should learn that gender can differ from assigned sex at birth and 31% said students should learn that assigned sex determines gender.

Roughly half of teens also said they shouldn’t learn about gender identity in school, while roughly a quarter each said they should learn that gender can be different than assigned sex at birth and that assigned sex should determine gender.

A majority of parents think they should be able to opt out of LGBTQ topics at 54%.

Partisan differences

Teachers’ views varied widely by party, with Democrat and Democratic-leaning teachers much more likely to say students should be taught that slavery continues to impact Black Americans (85%) and that gender identity can differ from sex assigned at birth (53%). Just 30% of Democratic teachers said parents should be able to opt out of LGBTQ topics and 11% said they should be able to opt out of classes discussing racism and racial inequality.

In contrast, 35% of Republican teachers thought students should learn about the continuing impact of slavery and 69% said students shouldn’t learn about gender identity at all. Eighty percent of Republican or Republican-leaning teachers thought parents should be able to opt out of LGBTQ issues and 47% say parents should be allowed to opt out of discussing racism and racial inequality.