An update to the migration of children out of the public school system
https://www.kcur.org/education/2024-01-16/thousands-of-students-in-kansas-and-missouri-have-left-public-education-heres-why
In a previous post we discussed the low birth rates and the impact that was having on rural Kansas school districts. Here is a further look at both Kansas and Missouri, and how many children are not returning to public school.
“Enrollment in Missouri’s public schools dropped by 2% from the 2019-2020 school year to the 2022-2023 school year — making up a DROP of nearly 18,000 students”
“Public school enrollment in Kansas is down about 16,000 students from its peak in 2015. Statewide enrollment numbers just released for 2023-2024 show a 3% drop from the 2014-2015 school year.”
Part of the reason: parents are choosing private schools or opting to homeschool their children. ““What the pandemic did is it exposed more parents to homeschooling and virtual schooling,” Hitt said. “It also changed the work dynamic for tons of families, where tons of families are now working from home all or most of the time.” That, combined with more private school vouchers and savings programs for families to spend on public school alternatives, Hitt said, has created the perfect conditions for a homeschooling boom. Bert Moore, who oversees homeschool registrations for the Kansas Department of Education, said thousands of the state’s families decided to stick with homeschooling after getting a taste of it during the COVID pandemic.
According to the article, approximately 250,000 school aged children were unaccounted for in Missouri during the pandemic. That number is now 50,000 due to kids aging out (turning 18). Missouri does not require that parents register with the state as a homeschool family, so they are not accounted for as homeschooled. This is concerning, because vulnerable children are at HIGH RISK of something bad happening if there is no accountability for where that child may be. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for personal choice and less government. But is is highly concerning that during the pandemic, no one knew where 250,000 kids were. I just hope they were homeschooled and nothing bad happened to those sweet kids.
Public schools behaved as if self-destruction was the intention, especially as so blatantly politically led by the odious Randi Weingarten, head of the huge American teacher's union, AFT.
Last year the legislature in Utah, where I live, passed a bill that will give a voucher f $8,000 to children that may be used in their school of choice. This passed because a nice raise was given in exchange to public school teachers and because the legislature in this state is majority conservative.
https://www.kuer.org/education/2023-02-09/utah-isnt-alone-in-embracing-school-vouchers-has-it-worked-out-in-other-states
I too hope that no ill befalls those unaccounted for children. The home schooling thing reminds me of a situation I discovered while working in Alaska. My job required me to spend some time in villages and other communities outside of the major megalopolis of Anchorage. (There was a lot of sarcasm packed in that sentence) Anyway, I would encounter individuals generally doing nothing (except perhaps smoking dope) even though they were obviously school aged and others were in school. As I am generally curious I would ask about their situation. Invariably I would be informed that they were engaged in "Self Directed Study". After encountering quite a number of these "students" I decided to dig deeper into this mysterious category of Rural Alaskan Student. Alaska is a very large small town. If you live there and don't know a particular person, then you know someone that does know them. So one day I cornered a mid-level education bureaucrat and plied them with lunch. What I discovered saddened me.
It seems that some students were more than a bit truant. Worse, they were disruptive to the point that others had no opportunity to learn on those occasions when they did make it to class. The education powers that be came up with a solution. The disruptive truants were invited to a meeting with a parent or guardian present. Instead of taking a harsh or corrective tone, the school official would offer the student an opportunity for Self Directed Study. A topic of study was arrived at and the student was turned loose to pursue this topic with the promise of a report on the findings at some later date in exchange for a certificate of graduation or completion. Normally the family would protest at this point because the student would probably just end up hanging around causing trouble at home. Here comes the genius: The family was offered a not inconsequential stipend to be spent on the the pursuit of the education goal, of course. The truant student, who only occasionally went to school to cause trouble, was being told they did not ever have to go back to the classroom and the family was being paid to make sure this would happen. Also, as the students were technically participating in a sanctioned program the school district continued to receive Federal dollars whereas that was in jeopardy when the students were truant. Win-Win-Win.
All was well until the student aged out of the program and the money stopped. Of course it was way too late to go back to school. So the Self Directed Study student was left without an education stranded in a remote village with no prospects. What could go wrong?
The State education system officially abandoned these kids. It was a easy solution to the immediate problem of disruptive truant students. As far as I could tell the families never complained because they had more money for booze/dope for as long as the charade lasted.
Having been a bureaucrat, I know for a fact that bureaucracies or "systems" do NOT have the little guy's best interest at heart. (Ha Ha, what heart?) Perhaps some of the Midwestern children not returning to school will actually learn to think for themselves and seek whatever knowledge they desire to achieve their goals. That was not the case for the Self Directed Study victims in Bush Alaska.