This past year, families have been leaving public schools for in-person private schools, virtual charter schools or homeschooling. | stock photo
This past year, families have been leaving public schools for in-person private schools, virtual charter schools or homeschooling. | stock photo
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy says that if state officials keep classrooms empty, it may cost the public school districts thousands of pupils for years to come.
The Mackinac Center says that students are experiencing "learning losses" in essential subjects like math.
"In the spring, many families were willing to give schools the benefit of the doubt as they adjusted to distance-learning programs, but it looks like time has run out on that goodwill," Ben DeGrow, the Mackinac Center’s director of education policy, and Will Flanders, research director at the Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, wrote in an op-ed. "Part of the frustration is tied to students’ learning losses in key subjects such as math. Even more significant, perhaps, are concerns about mental health and child care."
At the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns, many parents were enthusiastic about the remote learning program. However, as the pandemic drags on, more parents are in agreement that remote learning is not the most effective way to teach children.
"Fewer parents are now 'completely satisfied' with their children’s education; their number fell by 10 percentage points since last year, according to a Gallup poll," DeGrow and Flanders wrote on the Mackinac Center's website. "Parents across the country have expressed their dissatisfaction by voting with their feet: States from Colorado to Georgia have experienced substantial declines in public school enrollment."
Many parents simply want schools to reopen for in-person learning, but their pleas are often not being heard by school boards across the country.
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