This past year, families have been leaving public schools for in-person private schools, virtual charter schools or homeschooling. | Pexels
This past year, families have been leaving public schools for in-person private schools, virtual charter schools or homeschooling. | Pexels
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy says that if the state keeps classrooms closed in favor of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, it may cost Michigan school districts thousands of students for years to come.
Ben DeGrow, the Mackinac Center’s director of education policy, and Will Flanders, research director at the Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, say that students are suffering from "learning losses" in basic subjects like math.
"In the spring, many families were willing to give schools the benefit of the doubt as they adjusted to distance-learning programs, but it looks like time has run out on that goodwill," DeGrow and Flanders write in the Mackinac Center op-ed. "Part of the frustration is tied to students’ learning losses in key subjects such as math. Even more significant, perhaps, are concerns about mental health and child care."
At the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns, more parents were in favor of remote learning. However, as the pandemic has dragged on, most parents agree that remote learning is not the most effective method.
"Fewer parents are now 'completely satisfied' with their children’s education; their number fell by 10 percentage points since last year, according to a Gallup poll," DeGrow and Flanders wrote. "Parents across the country have expressed their dissatisfaction by voting with their feet: States from Colorado to Georgia have experienced substantial declines in public school enrollment."
Many parents simply want their children to return to in-person learning, pleas that have been ignored by some school boards across the country.
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