This past year, families have been leaving public schools for in-person private schools, virtual charter schools or homeschooling. | Adobe Stock
This past year, families have been leaving public schools for in-person private schools, virtual charter schools or homeschooling. | Adobe Stock
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy says that if Michigan administrators keep classrooms empty in favor of remote learning, the public schools may lose thousands of schoolchildren for years to come.
The Center says that children are suffering from "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 in an op-ed. "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 start of the COVID-19 crisis, parents were enthusiastic about remote learning programs. But as the pandemic drags on for almost a year, more parents are coming to the conclusion that remote learning is not the best way for their children to be educated.
"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 their children to attend in-person school, but school boards have often not been receptive to their concerns.
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