by Brendan Clarey
New research shows that school enrollment has declined in over 5,000 public schools in the U.S., suggesting families are rejecting traditional schools because of the pandemic.
The Fordham Institute’s new study, conducted by researcher Sofoklis Goulas from the Brookings Institution, released Wednesday, found that families were over twice as likely to leave low-performing public schools.
“These declines do not seem to be explained by declining birth rates or any changes in the enrollment of charter schools or private schools,” Goulas said. “There is something else going on.”
The enrollment declines aren’t random, which leads Goulas to suspect that students aren’t just missing but instead are seeking alternatives.
“This new research allows us to see whether these declines are random across schools or whether it could be something related to the efficacy,” Goulas said. “And we find that the big low-performing schools experience larger enrollment declines, which makes us think that, indeed, families are looking for something else.”
Goulas added that families could be looking at homeschooling, but the definitive research isn’t out yet. Whatever the cause for the enrollment declines, Goulas said the COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst.
Goulas said that during the pandemic and related school closures by leaders, families were experimenting with alternative arrangements, like homeschooling, which may have worked well for some. Families may also have been disappointed with how schools reacted during the pandemic, Goulas said.
Another aspect of the pandemic closures is learning loss, which Goulas said may drive families to alternatives as they hope to catch their kids up.
Goulas said that as important as the topic is, many do not want to discuss ebbing enrollment because of what it might mean for a community.
“A lot people do not want to discuss declining school enrollment because of operation pressures schools experience that may eventually lead to school closures,” Goulas said. “Even though school closures are a rare phenomenon – we don’t see a lot of school closures in the historical data – they are associated with declining enrollment.”
– – –
Brendan Clarey is a contributor to The Center Square.
