NY Times report notes 'seismic' hit to public schools in wake of pandemic

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When public schools closed, these schools opened

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The New York Times' "Daily Covid Briefing" highlighted Tuesday the plunging enrollment numbers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that it was a "seismic hit" to public schools.

Public schools have lost 1,268,000 students since the start of the pandemic, a national survey found. The pandemic "supercharged" the enrollment decline in "ways that experts say will not easily be reversed," The New York Times report said. 

A sign taped to the front door of Pulaski International School of Chicago reads, School Closed after Chicago Public Schools, the nation's third-largest school district, said it would cancel classes since the teachers' union voted in favor of a return to remote learning, in Chicago, Jan. 5, 2022.  REUTERS/Jim Vondruska (REUTERS/Jim Vondruska)

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Experts noted two potential causes for the decline during the pandemic. 

"Some parents became so fed up with remote instruction or mask mandates that they started home-schooling their children or sending them to private or parochial schools that largely remained open during the pandemic. And other families were thrown into such turmoil by pandemic-related job losses, homelessness and school closures that their children simply dropped out," the report read.

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Schools in Democrat-led cities and states remained closed throughout most of the pandemic. Democrat-led states were also the last to lift masking restrictions on children in schools.

Fox News contributor Karol Markowicz responded to the report by noting that public schools in Democratic-controlled areas stayed closed while private schools in those same areas, and public schools in Republican-controlled areas, opened.

She said that it was about politics and not science, while also criticizing American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who spoke out against school reopenings throughout the pandemic.  

"It was Weingarten who pressured politicians to keep the schools closed. And it's Weingarten who fights not to allow parents to have the choice to opt out of the failing system she destroyed. Everyone knew what prolonged closures would do to kids and institutions. Weingarten did not care," Markowiciz told Fox News Digital.

Smaller enrollment affects public school funding and many schools are grappling with less funding, with some in Oakland, Denver and Albuquerque considering completely shutting down certain schools, according to the Times. 

"In some states where schools eschewed remote instruction — Florida, for instance — enrollment has not only rebounded, but remains robust," the report said. 

The Washington Post published an opinion piece condemning parent’s right.  (iStock)

"This has been a seismic hit to public education," Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, told the New York Times. "Student outcomes are low. Habits have been broken. School finances are really shaken. We shouldn’t think that this is going to be like a rubber band that bounces back to where it was before."

Chicago's public schools lost 25,000 students in the last couple of years. Noncharter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District saw a loss of 43,000 students in the same amount of time, according to the report. The LA school district saw a decrease of 27,000 in 2021. 

Many have said the pandemic caused students to fall behind as children remained home and took part in remote learning. According to the Times, private school enrollment in the last two years amounted to roughly 73,000 K-12 students. 

A "closed" sign in front of a public elementary school in Grand Rapids, Michigan in March 2020.  (iStock)

The report emphasized that California was the worst off. In the Capistrano Unified School District, according to the report, over 3,000 parents said they would remove their kids if they were mandated to vaccinate their children with no "personal belief" exemption. 

"We love our school," Lisa Rogers, 38, who has two children in the district, told the outlet. "But if my children are forced to wear masks again, or if I’m forced to vaccinate them against my will, I’m going to pull them out and home-school."

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Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., attempted to prohibit private schools from teaching in-person classes in 2020 via his numerous coronavirus mandates, which a court determined was unlawful in 2021. 

In 2020, several private schools remained open as public schools kept their doors closed.