The plan is working

The downward death spiral for public education long fantasized about by the Far Right seems to be taking shape under our extremist state government.


Despite a reputation as one of the nation’s hottest markets, with steady population growth since the pandemic, enrollment is dropping in Hillsborough County’s traditional public schools.

Twenty-day student counts released this week show schools run by the school district had a net loss of 1,581 students when compared with the 20th day of 2022-23.

By comparison, charter schools — which get state funding but are managed independently — grew by 2,528 students. The charter total, which now accounts for 17% of public school students, includes two schools from the IDEA network that report to the state and not the district.

Hillsborough’s K-8 schools grew by 2,292 students, reflecting the growing popularity of that format. But elementary and middle schools showed a net loss of 3,723.

Public school roster lags
Public school roster lags - Tampa Bay Times

 

There’s always other reasons at the individual level, but to paraphrase Hari Seldon, the population level numbers suggest a primary recent cause, and I think that is the combination of the extreme Right inside and outside government. Sometimes they use situations they didn’t create, like the pandemic. But their paranoid worldview does not accept public education conceptually. And some individual choices may be rational because the choices are being weighted by resource allocations driven by the same agenda. And parents don’t always know best

 

I'm not sure if you're saying this, but I agree if you are contending that this is not simply a recent phenomenon. It is a combination of decades trying to undermine public education, given a supercharge recently with our state government, unintentionally aided by the pandemic.

I think minority parents value education. But I also think they can be persuaded that they are accessing greater opportunity, when in reality, that opportunity will be yanked away if it gets too tangible. We're getting into far broader aspects about society in general, but truly integrated education to provide meaningful opportunity can be very hard to achieve based upon many pre-existing societal fault lines