Deserting public schools

 Deserting public schools

 

We are going to see some big changes in public schools in the next year or two.   During the great recession of 2008, private schools were losing students at serious rates.  Now the reverse is true.

Families with the economic resources are leaving public schools.  Private schools and community religious schools are the beneficiaries of the exodus from public schools.  Families get that virtual learning is an oxymoron.   Parents of young children cannot believe that there are expectations for little kids to sit in front of a screen for five hours a day.  Teachers’ unions are calling the shots about when kids can come back into buildings for school.   Meanwhile, private schools and community-based schools are opening for instruction for full days.   There have been no major outbreaks of illness among students or staff.  Families are going back to work; students are going back to school.  The big question for public schools is will these loses be permanent?

What will this exodus mean for public schools?   The assumption is that the loss of seniors in June will be made up by incoming kindergarten and first graders.  But that didn’t happen this year.  Public schools are given state aide based on a pupil count in mid-October.  Those counts were down dramatically this school year leading public school systems to lose millions and millions of dollars.

The loss of revenue isn’t the only loss to school systems. The people who are leaving are the people with the resources to afford private school.  In addition to their economic well-being they are also people who value education.  They are the people who testify at budget hearings and legislative meetings demanding more money for education and better facilities.  They are the “consumers” who do not have a vested financial interest in schools.   Who will public schools turn to for advocates when they are gone.  Teachers’ unions will argue for more money.  But they are arguing from a place of self-interest and essentially what they want is more salary money, not necessarily better schools.

There is another issue.   Fewer students means that fewer teachers will be needed and fewer teachers mean lower expenses for school districts.   Staff are the biggest expense of schools.  Those unions that have been resisting coming back to school may find this stance to come back and bite them in the spring when new contracts are let.

But most of all, will our public schools be re-configured so they are made up of the marginal in our society, the economically depressed, the homeless, the families for whom education is not a high value.  And then where will our society be?