This article was originally published by
Kerry McDonald at the Foundation for Economic Freedom.�
Ongoing and
renewed shutdowns of public schools across the country due to
the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in astonishing public school
enrollment drops.
NPR recently reported that
public school districts in at least 20 states have seen shrinking
numbers of students this fall, with Orange County and Miami-Dade
County in Florida down 8,000 and 16,000 public school students,
respectively. Los Angeles public school enrollment has dropped by
nearly 11,000 students.
Families are increasingly turning away from public schooling and
toward private education options during the pandemic—a trend that
is likely to continue even after the virus fades.
Since March, US parents have been put back in charge of their
children’s education in unprecedented ways. Zoom schooling has
given them a peek into what their children are actually learning
(or not learning) in their classrooms, and ongoing school closures
have encouraged families to pursue education options beyond their
assigned district school. Many families have withdrawn their
children from a district school in recent months in favor of
independent homeschooling or private schooling, or have decided to
delay their child’s kindergarten entry.
Homeschooling Numbers Soar
According to a recent Gallup poll, the rate of homeschooling
has doubled since last year to nearly 10 percent, while the rate of
children enrolled in a district school declined seven percent to 76
percent of the overall US K-12 student population.
New state-level data offers more insight into this exodus from
public schooling. In Connecticut,
officials report that public school enrollment is down more than
15,000 students or about three percent, with much of that drop due
to fewer children enrolled in public kindergarten and
pre-kindergarten programs. At the same time, homeschooling numbers
in Connecticut are more than six times higher than they were last
year, with over 3,500 children opting out of public schooling for
homeschooling this year alone.
Other states are seeing similar shifts away from public
schooling this fall. In Utah,
public school enrollment has dropped for the first time in 20
years, while homeschooling numbers in the state have tripled this
year. In Arizona,
public school enrollment is down 50,000 students, or about five
percent of the school-age population, with an associated uptick in
homeschooling. The state has also seen a 14 percent drop in
kindergarten enrollment. In Montana,
public school enrollment is down approximately 3,300 students over
last year and homeschooling numbers are up. School officials there
are worried about state funding cuts as public school enrollment
falls.
Indeed, this is a prime moment to advocate for education choice
policies, such as education
savings accounts, that enable education funding to follow
children wherever they learn, rather than funding the bureaucratic
school systems that more families are rejecting. Critics argue that
the flight from public schools toward private options during the
pandemic deepens inequality,
but expanding education choice mechanisms ensures that all parents
have the opportunity to select the learning option that works best
for their children.
The Reason Foundation’s Corey DeAngelis has written
extensively about funding students, not systems. He explains:
“This is exactly how we fund many other taxpayer-funded
initiatives, including Pell Grants for higher education and
prekindergarten programs. For these programs, funding goes to
families who can then choose from a wide array of public or private
providers of the service. The same goes for food stamps. In these
scenarios, the power is rightly in the hands of families rather
than institutions.â€
More Families Turn To Private Schools
It is clear that growing numbers of families are opting for
private education options during the pandemic, and many more would
likely leave their assigned district school now and in the future
if they could access some of their education tax dollars that are
currently ensnared in public school systems.
Some private schools are seeing enrollment jumps during the
pandemic, even as public school numbers fall. According to a
recent analysis by
the Cato Institute, nearly one-quarter of private schools surveyed
indicated that their enrollment has grown over last year. Catholic schools
and independent private schools
in some states have also seen enrollment boosts. These schools have
been more responsive to parental demand for in-person learning
while public schools remain closed, often due to teacher union pressure.
In Boston, interest in Catholic schools soared over the summer
when Massachusetts teacher unions announced a push for remote learning
only, while the state’s parochial schools committed to in-person
learning. Thomas Carroll, the head of Boston’s Catholic schools,
said the enrollment demand from parents was immediate. In
an interview with
Boston NPR, Carroll explained: “When it hit the evening news, our
phone(s) started ringing off the hook all across all of our 100
schools…I joke that we should send a thank you note to the school
districts, because of their tone deafness, in terms of what the
parents were looking for.â€
The reopening of in-person learning in these Catholic schools
has not led to widespread coronavirus infections. Massachusetts
governor, Charlie Baker, recently praised them as an example for
public schools to follow. “The kids in schools are not spreaders
of Covid,†the Wall Street Journal quoted Baker.
“I mean, there’s no better example of that right now than the
parochial schools in Massachusetts. They have 28,000 kids and 4,000
employees who have been back in-person learning since the middle of
August, and they have a handful of cases.â€
More Low-Cost, Private Options
Parent demand for in-person learning during the pandemic is
prompting an expansion of private education possibilities,
including low-cost options that are more accessible to more
families. Pandemic learning pods are widely popular, allowing small
groups of children to gather together in private homes with a hired
teacher, or with parents taking turns facilitating instruction. As
these affordable, versatile pods take more children away from
district schools, it’s perhaps not surprising that bureaucrats
are declaring war on them with regulatory burdens. But parental
demand for flexible, high-quality, low-cost learning options is
unlikely to wane, particularly as parents gain a greater
appreciation for private education during the pandemic.
Thales Academy, for
example, is a North Carolina-based network of low-cost private
schools that is expanding during
the pandemic even as public school enrollment in the state plunges.
Founded more than a decade ago by entrepreneur Bob Luddy who was frustrated with the
bureaucracy and poor outcomes of North Carolina’s public schools,
Thales Academy has grown to 11 campuses in three states, enrolling
more than 3,600 students at an annual tuition cost
of about $5,500 a year, plus generous scholarship programs to
off-set the cost even further for many families.
The pandemic has disrupted families’ lives in countless ways,
and the impact of school closures and remote learning has been
particularly challenging. Many parents are embracing homeschooling
and other private education options that are more flexible and
responsive to their needs. With an assortment of innovative,
low-cost, high-quality private education options attracting more
families, plummeting public school enrollment during the pandemic
may become permanent.
The post
Public School Enrollment Plummets as Private Schools See Gains
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