The American public is growing more unhappy with public schools, and statistics are starting to show that parents are finding alternatives for their children’s education, including teaching their children themselves, as the numbers of people in the Homeschooling movement get stronger. After being sent home during COVID, many parents have decided to keep their kids home, and also they are now not even sending kids to Kindergarten at all, at startling rates.
“Public school enrollment drops 3% nationally Even more stark is drop in enrollment among younger students: 13% for preschool and kindergarten.”
The number of students attending public schools during the 2020-2021 academic year fell by roughly 3% compared with the previous year.
The data comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, a federal agency that analyzes education figures.
The 3% drop represents some 1.5 million students according to the preliminary report. A final report will not be available until next spring, according to the NCES. Figures come from reports generated by state departments of education.
There were 51.1 million students enrolled in conventional and public charter schools during the 2019-2020 academic year.
Even more stark is the drop in enrollment among younger students. Preschool enrollment fell by 22%, and preschool and kindergarten enrollment combined dropped 13%.
By contrast, high school enrollment fell by 0.4%.
Ross Santy, associate commissioner for the NCES, noted how rare it is for public schools to lose students.
“K-12 enrollment in our nation’s public schools has been increasing almost every year since the start of this century,” Santy said in a statement. “Before this year, in the few recent years where we have seen enrollment decreases, they have been small changes representing less than 1 percent of total enrollment.”
The Data report released revealed a startling decline in the number of American children attending public schools: Total K-12 enrollment dropped by roughly 3 percent in 2020-21 compared with the previous school year.
The overall number obscures an even more dramatic drop among the youngest children. According to the data circulated by the National Center for Education Statistics — the federal agency charged with analyzing and disseminating information about schools and education — the combined number of preschool and kindergarten students decreased by 13 percent last year. All told, the decline is the largest since the turn of the century.
HOMESCHOOLING TAKES OFF
The large drop in enrollment among younger students confirms earlier speculation that families chose to keep those students out of school rather than attempt virtual learning.
Home-schooling, meanwhile, more than doubled between the end of the 2019-2020 school year and the start of 2020-2021.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 5.4% of American households said they were home-schooling their children in the spring of 2020. By October of 2020, that figure reached 11.1%.
“It’s clear that in an unprecedented environment, families are seeking solutions that will reliably meet their health and safety needs, their childcare needs and the learning and socio-emotional needs of their children,” the Census Bureau said in a recent report.
The drop in funding, as a result, leaves schools having to invent new revenue streams, like money from the Federal government, leaving Americans with something to really think about. How will the left solve this problem?
Because federal and state education funding is pegged to student enrollment, a retreat from public school systems will hit budgets. In Albuquerque Public Schools, officials anticipate a loss of as much as $53 million because of the decline in enrollment.https://t.co/9nS9nneNZj
— Santa Fe New Mexican (@thenewmexican) June 28, 2021
According to their article:
Homeschooling nearly doubled in New Mexico last year as thousands of parents opted out of virtual learning programs offered in public schools.
The unprecedented defection from the public school system is putting a strain on school budgets, which are rooted in student enrollment.
Parents with the time and patience to school at home said they love the flexibility of home school and have learned how to give their children a more tailored education.
The number of children registered with the state as home-schoolers nearly doubled from around 8,800 before the pandemic to around 15,400 this past school year, according to Public Education Department data. K-12 enrollment was already shrinking by around 1.1 percent each year following a decade of decreased births and more child-bearing-aged people moving out of the state than moving to it.
The data validates a census survey that found home schooling doubled in New Mexico and across the U.S.
Because federal and state education funding is pegged to student enrollment, a retreat from public school systems will hit budgets. In Albuquerque Public Schools, officials anticipate a loss of as much as $53 million because of the decline in enrollment.
Kari is an ex-Community Organizer who writes about Cultural Marxism, grassroots activism, music, IndyCar racing and political campaigns. @Saorsa1776
