Opinion | School Choice Made Big Gains During the Covid Pandemic According to a new report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, enrollment grew 7% at charters between 2019 and 2022, while falling 3.5%, or almost 1.5 million, at traditional public schools over the same period. Catholic schools likewise have seen a boost in attendance, with nationwide enrollment this year up 3.8%, the largest increase in more than two decades. In addition to fleeing traditional public schools for charter and parochial alternatives, thousands of families responded to the Covid crisis by creating “learning pods” or “microschools” for their children. This involved bringing together small groups of students who were taught by hired instructors or parent volunteers. The Center on Reinventing Public Education, a research organization based at Arizona State University, has been studying the phenomenon, and its findings are revealing. In a report released earlier this year, CRPE noted that 58% of the families who created pods didn’t just prefer them to the remote-learning and hybrid-learning options during the pandemic. They also preferred them to their experience with traditional public schools before the pandemic. Nonwhite families were twice as likely as white families to say the pod improved their child’s overall happiness and attitude toward school, and they trusted the pod instructors more than they did the pre-pandemic teachers in traditional public schools
It’s a wonder these days that so many parents are still determined to commend their children to government schools.
While I don’t see charter or private schools as a panacea, on balance I’d rather people have more school choice than less.
Obviously there's a great variety in the nation's public schools. I'm guessing it's far more affected by the students than the teachers and administration. And if parents think their kids can get a better education elsewhere .. I get that. But I do hate that we're slowing losing the neighborhood school because it's been such a vital institution creating a sense of community.
The key imho opinion to a students good educational outcome is parents who care about the outcome. Good teachers are important too to a lesser extent.
Never thought we would do private. But our younger two are now in private school. Our oldest has stayed in public but was far enough along that we felt good about her ability to not be left behind by the worst public health policy of our lifetimes and the fact we lived in Florida and felt comfortable knowing our leadership would not make the mistake made in the Spring of 2020 ever again. All three have continued to thrive. We will see what happens when the younger two get to high school as the private school they are in only goes to 8th grade.
Charters can serve valuable roles, but right now, it's the wild west in too many states. What it results in is way too many bad schools hiring teachers who have discipline and performance issues, cutting corners and costs on education, and ultimately too many of these schools failing to adequately educate children (and failing overall). I'm not opposed to charters, but our governments need to get more serious about oversight and regulation.
I agree with you on charters. There are some of them with specialties that public may or not offer. With that being said, some of them are really bad and many end up closing.
