(My new American Thinker post)
Over the weekend, I saw this article about public schools and parents.
Maybe it's really parents vs. schools.
This is from the Associated Press:
Families opting for homeschooling, private schools and other options sent enrollment down sharply in the first full school year of the pandemic, and generally it has been slow to recover.
In Houston, the largest district in Texas, enrollment tumbled by more than 22,000 to around 183,000 in fall 2021 and only about half of those students have returned. The district was shielded from making cuts in the first two years of the pandemic by what are known as “hold harmless” provisions, but those protections are expected to end. Superintendent Millard House has asked departments to cut $60 million from next year’s budget.
So where did the kids go? They are staying away from public schools.
The article does point out that enrollment is up in Florida, and down in California, in further confirmation of where the moving vans are going.
The pandemic is clearly a factor but it's more complicated than that.
A Dallas friend well connected with Catholic schools told me that the phone does not stop ringing at the office. Why? Parents are calling wondering how they can move their kid from public schools. Most of them are not even Catholic. As my friend said, one mother said on the phone that she wants to send her kids to a school where boys and girls go to different bathrooms and no one makes it a constitutional issue.
Home schooling is booming too or another way that parents are voting against the system.
What's next? The parents will show up to vote and demand "school choice" from their state legislatures.
Moral of the story: Don't pick a fight with mom and dad because they vote and pay the taxes.
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