Voting With Their Feet: Parents Taking Their Kids Out of Traditional Public Schools in Astounding Numbershttps://pjmedia.com/culture/stacey-lennox/2021/09/23/voting-with-their-feet-parents-taking-their-kids-out-of-public-schools-in-astounding-numbers-n1480656A new report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools shows what a great advertisement American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten and her more radical members provided for school choice. After more than a year of school closures, Zoom classes, and battles over critical race theory, parents are increasingly taking their children out of public schools. The study looked at enrollment shifts between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years.
Their analysis shows that 1.45 million children left traditional public schools. Charter schools gained 237,000 students in the same period. The difference is made up by families choosing private schools or homeschooling. The researchers noted that public school enrollment declines began years ago in many cities and states. Some of the loss was due to demographic changes and population decline. However, the pandemic appears to have accelerated the switch to public school alternatives.
This is another side of the impact of Covid and teacher's union's shenanigans on PSs. It's interesting that such a small percentage (~15%?) of the students changing are to public charter rather than private or home schools.
