Public School Attendance Has Fallen Since COVID Hit

When lockdowns happened across the nation, many Americans warned about the danger this would pose to children and their abilities to thrive and do well.

Unfortunately, these warnings were largely disregarded. People decided that kids would be able to make do with remote learning. Although now, the extent to which this has turned out to be dangerous for children is coming out.

At this point, many kids are behind in so many ways that could have been avoided. This is especially the case for kids who were attending public school, rather than private school.

Now, fresh information from Newsmax reports that fewer students altogether are attending public school than they were before COVID.

A Bad Situation For America’s Youth

Data from Education’s Next marks a two million decline in the kids who were in public school from 2020 to 2021. This comes on top of the 4% drop in the overall number of students in schools during this same timeframe.

At least some of these declines are due to parents taking their kids from public schools to either private schools or homeschooling. After all, the same data from Education’s Next also reveals a 10% rise in children going to private schools during the 2020 and 2021 school years.

This makes sense, seeing as many parents were eager to have their kids in schools that were actually prioritizing education, rather than blocking their kids from proper learning over two years’ time.

However, for as many kids who transitioned to private school or homeschooling, others are just behind in general when it comes to their education. This definitely doesn’t bode well for the future of America’s youth.

Nevertheless, the teachers unions have yet to apologize for their roll in keeping public schools closed or rallying against the in-person education of kids.

More Factors Working Against Public Schools

Within the past few years, many public schools have made headlines for trying to force political ideologies on kids.

Whether this comes via critical race theory or simply telling kids about transgenderism and gender ideology, many parents are looking to alternatives for the education of their children.

On top of this, numerous schools are feeling the sting of teacher shortages going around. This is especially true for parents of special needs kids who require teachers with certain skill sets in order to help educate young people.

If things continue on as they have been, public schools of the future may look very different than they have in years past. This also raises questions about the quality of education that’ll be available to children going forward.

What do you make of the decline in kids attending public schools? Let us know in the comments area if you believe this is the beginning of the end for public schools in America.