DOUBT IN PUBLIC SCHOOL

US confidence falls

Americans’ confidence in the US public school system has fallen nearly to the all-time low of 26% recorded in 2014, according to a poll released Thursday that also found the gap between Democrats’ and Republicans’ faith in the system has expanded.

Overall, 28% of Americans say they have a “great deal/quite a lot” of confidence in the country’s school systems, barely beating the record low from 2014, a Gallup poll shows.

Trust has been on a downward slide since it hit a high of 62% in 1975, but rebounded slightly to 41% in 2020 at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The rate then plummeted to 32% in 2021 and 28% in 2022.

The survey also indicated the stark political divide between parties — with 43% of Democrats saying they have confidence in the system compared with only 14% of Republicans. Among independents, that rate is at 29%.

The 29-point difference between Democrats and Republicans has expanded from a 25point gap last year.

The margin of the political division on education has remained relatively steady — about 7 points on average — since Gallup began asking the question in 1973, other than in 2013 when it shot up to 19 points before subsiding once again.

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 — fueled the divisions.

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

In 2022, 50% of Republicans say they have “very little/none” trust in the system, compared with the 14% who say they have a “great deal/a lot.” That 36-point gap has grown from a 24-point difference the year before and far beyond the 8-point difference in 2020.

Education politicized

Gallup noted that Americans’ confidence in the school system increased in the early days of the pandemic as teachers and administrators struggled to devise and follow safety regulations, but fell off quickly afterward.

“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 pollsters said. “Debate has also erupted at the national and local levels over school curricula touching on racism, gender theory and sexual orientation.”

The poll, which surveyed 1,015 Americans between June 1 and 20, has a plus-or-minus 4 percentagepoint margin of error.

A Long Island surfer fought off a shark that chomped down on his leg by “slapping” it and “paddling like hell” to shore, he recalled on Thursday — describing one of the five attacks in the area in just two weeks.

Shawn Donnelly, 41, of Mastic Beach, was lying on his surfboard with his legs in the water near Smith Point County Park in Shirley at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday when the man-biter sunk its teeth into his left calf, he said.

“The shark ambushed me,” Donnelly told The Post. “I have never been more scared in my entire life . . . I screamed and flailed.”

Donnelly, a lawyer who surfs before work, said the impact of the bite sent him plunging into the 7-foot-deep water roughly 30 feet from shore — where he could see the possible sand tiger shark’s spotted dorsal fin.

“It came up from the sandbar like a torpedo,” he said. “There was no fish jumping out of the water, no water moving, just quiet then ‘bang.’ Next thing I knew, the shark knocked me off my board.”

He slapped the apex predator and scrambled back onto his 6-foot surfboard board, with the 5-foot shark lurking in the murky water below him.

“I was horrified,” he said. “I just slapped the shark once. I hit it, then instantly turned and paddled for the beach.

“When I got back on my board it was under me, so close,” he said. He then caught a well-timed wave to the coastline. “After a couple of strokes, a wave broke behind me and pushed me to shore,” he told Newsday. “I thought, ‘I can’t believe what just happened.’ ”

Once out of the water, Donnelly saw blood dripping from a 2-inch gash on his leg.

“I did a quick check. I thought maybe he didn’t get me. Then I saw the blood running down my leg and one clear bite mark,” Donnelly told the outlet.

He walked to a nearby campground check-in booth and told a park ranger he’d been bit by a shark.

He was then taken to Long Island Community Hospital in Patchogue, where his injury was treated.

“It happened so fast,” he said. “I was afraid when it happened, then when I was back on the beach I had so much adrenalin, it didn’t even seem like it was real.”

Donnelly is one of five victims — including a tourist from Arizona and a local lifeguard — who were attacked by sharks in Long Island waters in recent days.

String of incidents

On Wednesday evening, a 49year-old man from Arizona was standing in waist-deep water on Fire Island’s Seaview Beach when a shark bit him from behind on the buttocks and left wrist, Suffolk County police said.

The victim made it out of the water before he was flown to Stony Brook University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

On July 3, lifeguard Zach Gallo, 33, was also chomped in the chest and hand by a 5-foot sand tiger shark near Smith Point County Park in Shirley while playing a victim in an ocean training exercise.

He also punched the shark to keep it away and escaped with a gash on his chest.

Four days later, another unnamed lifeguard also suffered a shark bite off of Ocean Beach on Fire Island, officials said.

And on June 30, a 37-year-old swimmer was bitten on his right foot near Jones Beach.

Donnelly said he’d been aware of the recent attacks but assumed he’d be fine. “It was a calculated risk that I got wrong,” he said.

John Chisholm, an adjunct scientist for the New England Aquarium, said the sand tiger sharks are biting people near Long Island as they hunt for pogies, fish that swim close to the shore during summer months.

“The sharks are not hunting people. It’s just the fact that the people are close to the bait,” he told The Post. “[Sharks are] in more shallow water because that’s where the food is.

“All along the [shore] from New Jersey to New England, there’s a lot of bait in the water,” he said.

He said the shark encounters are actually a sign that the ocean’s ecosystem is thriving in the area and that beachgoers should adjust accordingly.

“It’s a wilderness area. You wouldn’t go on Safari in the Amazon without planning before you go. So pay attention.

“Don’t swim or surf by yourself. Don’t go swimming or surfing at dawn or dusk when sharks are more likely to be hunting.

“Be aware of your surroundings and aware of other animals

feeding,” Chisholm said.

Taking precautions

Long Island waters are also home to spinner sharks, sandbar sharks and juvenile white sharks, which sometimes swim close to the shore in summer months, he said. “You gotta take precautions — and realize the ocean is not a swimming pool.”

Fire Island beachgoers said Thursday the jaws-dropping spate of shark attacks had put a damper on their fun in the sun.

“We’ve been here since Monday. I haven’t swum at all because of the sharks,” said Joy Indursky,

60, who was visiting from Stanford, Conn.

“I’ve been coming here every year for a gajilion years, but this year was the first year I didn’t swim. I was told it was a little sharky.”

Sara Janzen, 41, who was visiting Seaview Beach from the Upper West Side, wouldn’t let her kids in the water due to the recent shark bites.

“I am a little nervous,” she said. “It was super hot today, and I’m sure my kids would have wanted to go swimming — but I didn’t bring them to the beach.”

Additional reporting by Lee Brown

Passed out and barely alive, illegal immigrants were rescued by Border Patrol agents in Texas from inhumane smuggling conditions, the agency said Wednesday.

Three immigrants were nearly lifeless after agents freed them from tiny train compartments, according to photos tweeted by Chief Border Patrol Agent Jason Owens, head of the Del Rio sector.

One woman is slumped against the train, while a man lies unconscious on the ground, the photos showed. A third immigrant is strapped to a gurney and receiving medical care from EMS.

“Uvalde agents responded to a call for assistance near a train siding,” Owens tweeted. “Subjects were hidden in small train compartments.”

Other photos show multiple agents pulling a man out of an opening that barely looks big enough for a child (right).

“Luckily no one lost their lives,” Owens said. “Do not put yourself in this situation. Your life is worth more.”

The photos are a reminder of the dangerous conditions immigrants put themselves in when they pay to be smuggled into the US. In June, 53 immigrants died in the back of a tractor-trailer.