Longe Term Impact of COVIS-19 on Public Education

For John, BLUF:  Because this is the United States and not some other nation, like China or Germany, we have a fair amount of flexibility with regard to schooling our children.  The Coronavirus may wake parents to new possibilities, with ripples in some school systems.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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We Are All Homeschoolers Now

Here is the sub-headline:

COVID-19 will bring about an education reevaluation, if not revolution.

From The American Spectator, by Mr Jeremy Lott, 1 April 2020.

Here is the lede plus five:

What does education look like in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic?

At the K-12 level, you’ve got problems.  At the collegiate level, you’ve got existential problems.

School is out for the year in most locales.  More innovative districts are retooling like crazy and trying to do online classes.  Parents are looking for cheap or free resources to do the job and keep their kids occupied during our enforced isolation.

Now that we’re out the money and have to take care of the kids, reassessment is going to happen.

In short, we are all homeschoolers now.  Expect that to be much more the case next school year, as enough parents who were forced to try it either a) like it and decide to keep this knowledge train rolling or b) don’t believe the schools are safe enough to send their kids back into and so suck it up.

This will create knock-on problems for public schools certainly, and also for private schools.

This is an article that articulates the issues/problems I see coming the end of Summer.  It may be that the economy forces everyone back to work, and thus back to school as babysitter, but it may not work out that way, in which case home schooling may rake off 5 or 10% of the current school student population.  That means reduced budgets, I am guessing, unless school systems become creative in becoming support systems for home schoolers.  And, of course, home schooling isn’t for everyone.

Where I don’t see decreases is in the Technical High Schools.

On the other hand, I had this input from a home schooling parent this AM"

On the local front, the Virginia public schools get money for each child in the county regardless of whether they attend private school, homeschool, or go to public school.  It will be a hard push to get that reformed.  However, the schools in Tennessee, Nashville in particular, may point to how the change happens when parents don't like what is happening.  Prior to the desegregation, there were very few private schools in Nashville.  Between desegregation and forced integration (bussing), lots of parents pulled their kids out of public schools.  In fact, pretty much anyone with the financial ability to do so did so.  After that, those parents never voted for a school bond referendum again.  No new schools were built at least as late as the late 80s (I don't have more recent information) and the schools fell into disrepair, causing even more people to try to flee.

If the current unpleasantness results in more parents teleworking, I could see an increase in on-line and homeschooling education.  The question is would it be enough to force legislative change?  I doubt it, but there is more reason to hope for that today.

Higher education is in a different fix.  Since they collect tuition, every kid that decides to go a different route is a direct hit to their bottom line.  I predict carnage in higher education.  It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff