An Exodus From US Public Schools

Families are fleeing public schools all across America — because those schools, especially union-dominated ones, have failed children so horribly in the pandemic.

Data collected from 33 states by Chalkbeat and The Associated Press show that K-12 enrollment in public schools has dropped by more than half a million students, or 2 percent, over the last year. This, when enrollment typically grows 0.5 percent a year.

Parents are plainly furious at systems that keep schools closed, and at remote-“learning” efforts that just don’t work. So they’re shifting to nonpublic schools that are giving in-person classes, to public charters that do remote-learning well and to home-schooling.

Education Week reports that home-schooling tripled this year from just over 3 percent of students to 10 percent.

In New York City, Catholic schools, which mostly offer in-person classes and tuition more affordable than other private schools, are seeing a sharp spike in applications and absorbing over 1,000 students who attended public school last year. Charter schools would likely see a similar boom — if state law hadn’t capped their numbers.

Teacher unions insist it’s inhumane to send staff into schools during a pandemic, though the science says otherwise. And sclerotic administration and union rules also block the innovation and flexibility that can make online classes work.

Mayor de Blasio did better than many other urban leaders (and the state of California), re-opening schools in October — but it’s been a lot of close-and-reopen chaos ever since (and with some teachers going remote while students are in school), even as infection rates for the system remain low.

Maybe the pandemic will provoke a sea change: a growing exodus from public systems, or reforms that ensure the kids actually become the top priority.