This past year, families have been leaving public schools for in-person private schools, virtual charter schools or homeschooling. | Pixabay
This past year, families have been leaving public schools for in-person private schools, virtual charter schools or homeschooling. | Pixabay
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy says that if Michigan officials keep classrooms empty, the community may lose thousands of public school students now and in the future.
The Center says that students are encountering "learning losses" in basic subjects like math and reading.
"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 on the website. "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 crisis, more parents were willing to try out the remote learning program. But as the pandemic drags on for nearly a year, parents now generally believe that remote learning is not the most effective way for their children to receive an education.
"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. "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 an in-person education for their children, but some school boards have not been receptive to their concerns.
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