Education officials in the U.S. might have honestly believed that they could make a mountainous ruin out of American education—subjecting students to two years of ruinous remote education, masking policies, and unbridled hysteria— and not suffer any consequences for it.
But they were wrong:
Districts in the country with the most remote classes lost 4.4% of their students, compared to a 1.1% drop for those who held school in person, according to a national survey by the American Enterprise Institute and the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College.
- New York saw the most significant drop in enrollment statewide from 2020 to 2022, with nearly 6% decline.
- Enrollment in New York City's public schools, the country's largest school district, dropped by 9.5% over two years, the Washington Post reports.
- Public school enrollment in California for the first time in two decades fell below six million this academic year, per statewide data.
How long will this last? "At least for as long as the pandemic persists," according to one expert:
- "There's going to be continued health uncertainty and I think parents are going to be concerned about whether public schools can provide a stable learning environment for the kids," Dee said.
"...whether public schools can provide a stable learning environment for the kids." Whoa whoa whoa:
Public schools absolutely can provide a "stable learning environment" for kids. No question at all about that. All they have to do is stop instituting deranged, unhinged COVID policies that are completely out of proportion to the actual threat that COVID poses to young children.
Children are at vanishingly low risk from COVID. It is barely even a factor for them. Masks are not necessary (and they don't work anyway). Social distancing in the classroom is not necessary. School shutdowns are not necessary. Ridiculous quarantining rules are not necessary. None of it is necessary.
Schools can figure this out and probably get back to normal pretty quickly. Or they can keep making students miserable and afraid and watch as enrollment craters even further. Their choice!
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