Suppose they find greener fields?

 Suppose they find greener fields

 

Private schools and public schools took two very different approaches to the pandemic.  Public schools closed up tightly.  No one knows how many trees sacrificed their lives as public schools sent thousands of “packets” of routine schoolwork out to students in lieu of being taught by a teacher.  Initially, the packets went out by grade level so all the kids in any grade got the same packet regardless of where they were academically.  Consequently, those packets were probably only useful to about 40% of the students and that is being charitable.  Finally, after lots of political pressure to open up, and lots and lots of resistance from teacher unions to stay at home, public schools began to marginally open for some kids on some days.

On the other hand, private schools were all in from the beginning.  As soon as they were allowed to open in person, private schools began bringing students into the schoolhouses.  Were there outbreaks of COVID in some spots, yes.  Were those cases managed by the schools and the local health departments with carefully targeted quarantine, absolutely. Did the children in private schools get a better education, most definitely.

Parents noticed and if they had the economic means they walked out and, private school enrollments began to increase.  

Now the question is, will those private school students return to the free public schools or keep paying the tuition.  The results are not in yet and we probably won’t know until this fall.  But there are some things that we do know.  White students are being enrolled in private schools at a much higher rate than other groups.  This situation is particularly true in districts where there was a heavier emphasis on virtual learning or systems are slow to return.  Public school districts receive funding based on enrollment.   For the 20-21 school year, Maryland’s Governor has agreed to fund public schools at pre-pandemic levels.  But that may not hold for the upcoming school year.  In addition to the loss of students to private schools, there has also been an uptick in families that are home-schooling.   In communities where the income of a 16 or 17-year old may be needed, families may make the short-sighted decision for the child not to return to school.  All in all, if these trends continue, we might well see a dramatic shift in the public school population, where higher income families chose private school or home-schooling and lower income and/or minority families chose public schools.  That situation will yield fewer state and federal dollars based on enrollment and public schools might also lose the strong advocacy of parents who push for more public school funding.  What if those greener fields aren’t full of weeds and families decide to stay?  Still more pandemic fallout.