{"id":1321236,"date":"2022-02-21T07:54:12","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T12:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1321236"},"modified":"2022-02-21T07:54:18","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T12:54:18","slug":"nearly-2-million-kids-left-public-schools-from-2020-to-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nearly-2-million-kids-left-public-schools-from-2020-to-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 2 Million Kids Left Public Schools From 2020 to 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnearly-2-million-kids-left-public-schools-from-2020-to-2021%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1321236&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/50322233972_fb98fcf125_k.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Would you believe that American families want their school-age children spending time in an actual school? As enrollment data continue to trickle in, evidence continues to mount that families have abandoned public schools in large numbers, for the second academic year running. <\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, Covid lockdowns and restrictions, coupled with a newfound awareness by parents of woke indoctrination in many public schools, have families embracing private educational options.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"public-school-enrollment-down-again\"><strong>Public School Enrollment Down\u2014Again<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Last June, the federal Department of Education released preliminary enrollment data for the 2020-21 school year. That <a href=\"https:\/\/nces.ed.gov\/whatsnew\/press_releases\/06_28_2021.asp\">initial report<\/a> showed a drop in public school enrollment of 3.8 percent over the previous school year of 2019-20. Since there were approximately 51.1 million children attending public schools in 2019-20, that\u2019s an enrollment loss of nearly 2 million in just that one school year.<\/p>\n<p>All states reported enrollment declines, and enrollment among the youngest students\u2014those in preschool and kindergarten\u2014declined the most, at 22 percent and 9 percent, respectively. The final enrollment data for 2020-21 won\u2019t get released until later this spring, but preliminary reports for the 2021-22 academic year show a decline in public school enrollment for the second straight year. <\/p>\n<p>NPR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/12\/15\/1062999168\/school-enrollment-drops-for-second-straight-year\">reported<\/a> on the attendance declines that many large districts saw for the school year that began this past August and September:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cNew York City\u2019s school enrollment dropped by about 38,000 students last school year, and another 13,000 this year.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIn Los Angeles, the student population declined by 17,000 students last school year, and nearly 9,000 this year.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIn the Chicago public schools, enrollment dropped by 14,000 last year, and another 10,000 this year.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The NPR story spoke of \u201ctroubling enrollment losses\u201d\u2014and that term does apply in some cases. The outlet examined students who left high school to go work before graduating, or children who simply <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/12\/08\/lockdowns-have-caused-more-children-to-drop-out-of-school-than-americans-have-died-of-covid\/\">vanished from a district\u2019s rolls<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The reasons for these types of enrollment losses can vary, from moves and dislocation caused by the pandemic, to frustration with online learning, to some families holding their children out of school due to fear of the virus. Districts can and should do all they can to get these students back into education, continuing outreach to track families down, or offering flexible options that allow students to return and complete their high school diploma.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"private-school-enrollment-increasing\"><strong>Private School Enrollment Increasing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Separate and distinct from those students who vanished from formal education entirely, another type of change continues within K-12 education. Parents frustrated with Covid lockdowns and restrictions, and wanting a better quality education for their children, have used the mass disruptions to their families to explore other options.<\/p>\n<p>Newly <a href=\"https:\/\/ncea.org\/NCEA\/Who_We_Are\/About_Catholic_Schools\/Catholic_School_Data\/NCEA\/Who_We_Are\/About_Catholic_Schools\/Catholic_School_Data\/Catholic_School_Data.aspx\">released data<\/a> show that, while public school attendance declined again this past fall, Catholic schools enjoyed a banner year for new enrollment. (Disclosure: While I attended Catholic schools, and have served as a consultant for various school choice clients, none of them had any role in this article, and my views are, as always, my own.)<\/p>\n<p>While Catholic school enrollment had declined for the previous two decades, this fall attendance spiked 3.8 percent\u2014the largest in half a century of data collection. And whereas public school enrollment declined most precipitously among kindergarten and pre-school populations, Catholic school enrollment spiked most in elementary grades, with pre-kindergarten enrollment up by more than a third.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"private-school-enrollment-gaining\"><strong>Private School Enrollment Gaining<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The trend extends far beyond Catholic schools. The National Association of Independent Schools, which represents non-religious private academies, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/12\/15\/1062999168\/school-enrollment-drops-for-second-straight-year\">reported<\/a> a net increase of 1.7 percent during the two years of the pandemic, with even higher growth of 6 percent among preschoolers.<\/p>\n<p>Why are private schools booming? Because of the experiences of parents like Sarah McVay, who explained to NPR why she pulled her students out of public schools in Seattle this fall: \u201cWe stuck it out the pandemic year\u2014bad choice\u2014and my third grader essentially sat bored, learning very little all year. The number of tech issues was infuriating\u2026it was constant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When McVay heard her son would have a long-term substitute had he remained in public school this fall, she had seen enough. Although not even religious, she enrolled her kids in a Lutheran school \u201cas an act of desperation.\u201d She found the school \u201ctruly amazing,\u201d and said that \u201cwe are going to stay through eighth [grade] now.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"choice-and-competition-help-students\"><strong>Choice and Competition Help Students<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Despite all the losses inflicted by the pandemic\u2014the loss of life, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/11\/03\/latest-nationwide-tests-show-public-schools-failing-students-even-before-lockdowns\/\">learning loss<\/a> far too many students suffered\u2014the way frustrated parents have demanded a bigger say in their children\u2019s education has made a positive impact on the education bureaucracy in ways even the lefties at NPR can understand. Their story quoted Minneapolis\u2019 superintendent as admitting that \u201cfamilies have a desire to gain more control of their lives\u201d and \u201care making calculated decisions to pursue other learning options that are best for their children and themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The end of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/12\/15\/1062999168\/school-enrollment-drops-for-second-straight-year\">NPR article<\/a> quotes Dallas superintendent Michael Hinojosa:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Hinojosa says he\u2019s had to get creative, even before the pandemic, reaching families and winning them over. Now, he says, they\u2019re pulling out all the stops, including the creation of new schools with more popular curricular offerings.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We embrace competition, which makes us better,\u2019 Hinojosa says. \u2018And I think we\u2019re beating them.\u2019 Though that\u2019s not yet reflected in the district\u2019s enrollment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ultimately, that competition, and those improvements to public school programs, will help students, even if public school enrollment in Dallas and elsewhere never returns to pre-pandemic levels. It\u2019s why <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edchoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/A-Win-Win-Solution-The-Empirical-Evidence-on-School-Choice.pdf\">study after study<\/a> shows that private school choice helps the educational outcomes of both the students who leave and the students who remain in public schools.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also yet another reason lawmakers should keep expanding school choice at the state level\u2014particularly if Republicans recapture governorships and state legislatures this November. When it comes to reforming American education, frustrated parents have taken the initiative and led the way; now they need lawmakers to give them more tools to complete this \u201cparent power\u201d revolution.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/chrisjacobshc\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>. Previously he was a senior health policy analyst for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a senior policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation\u2019s Center for Health Policy Studies, and a senior policy analyst with the Joint Economic Committee\u2019s Senate Republican staff. During the debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, Jacobs was a policy adviser for the House Republican Conference under then-Chairman Mike Pence. In the first two years of the law\u2019s implementation, he was a health policy analyst for the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Jacobs got his start on Capitol Hill as an intern for then-Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and history from American University, where he is a part-time teacher of health policy. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Would you believe that American families want their school-age children spending time in an actual school? As enrollment data continue to trickle in, evidence continues to mount that families have &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1321236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1321236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1321236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1321236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1321236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}