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As parents and students continue to flee public education the consequences are both good and dire


“But Brawndo’s got what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes!”

Two recent stories have clearly illustrated that the abandonment of the public school system, from kindergarten to college, is continuing unabated. It appears that the Wuhan lockdowns and mask and jab mandates helped to open the eyes of many parents and students as to the ineffectual and often harmful teaching going on in these institutions.

We begin with the precipitous drop in children attending K through 12 public schools.

Public school enrollment declined by 1.4 million students between fall 2019 and fall 2020, dipping to 49.4 million, a loss of nearly 3 percent, and remains at the lowest point in more than a decade. The decline could be closer to 2 million, according to a survey by Education Next showing that traditional public school enrollment as a percentage of all school enrollment declined sharply between 2020 and 2022.

Enrollment in traditional public schools fell from 81 percent to 76.5 percent of total enrollment during that period, while enrollment in public charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling grew by a combined 4.5 percent.

Those numbers suggest that nearly 2 million students left traditional public schools for other educational options between 2020 and 2022. The findings are based on the May 2022 survey of a national representative panel of more than 3,600 American adults commissioned by Education Next.

The abandonment in the last three years by so many parents of the public school system can be attributed to three things. First came the Wuhan panic lockdowns, with schools closing unnecessarily for years forcing little kids to learn remotely, something that simply doesn’t work. Kids need facetime to learn. Otherwise they lose interest.

Next came the mask mandates. Even when many public schools reopened, they demanded that these little kids wear masks eight hours a day and social distance. Such inhumane treatment was unacceptable to many parents, who pulled their kids from the schools so that they wouldn’t be treated as robots or vile carriers of disease.

These irrational actions by public school officials however do not explain the refusal of so many parents to bring their children back to the public schools now that the mandates have ended and the schools are open. Instead, it is what parents now know those public schools have been teaching that has driven them away.

During the epidemic, when public schools shut down and required learning remotely, parents for the first time could see in its entirety what public school teachers were telling their kids. Many parents were horrified. Not only was this remote education ineffective, it was filled with queer agenda and leftist indoctrination that was utterly inappropriate.

Like the present boycotts of Bud Light and Target, parents discovered that the public schools were working behind their backs to warp their children, and decided enough was enough. Under no condition could they let their kids back into the classroom and be faced with this agenda of perversion.

Nor has this abandonment of publicly-funding schooling been confined to only K through 12. Both parents and high school students have been abandoning colleges as well during the past three years.

Public four-year institutions saw a 0.8% enrollment decline as of spring 2023, a somewhat less severe decrease than the 1.2% decline recorded in 2022 but more pronounced than the 0.3% decline in 2021 and the 0.2% decline in 2020. Private four-year nonprofit institutions meanwhile witnessed a 1.0% decrease in 2023, compared to the 1.2% decrease in 2022, the 0.4% decrease in 2021, and the 0.6% decrease in 2020.

There are currently 7.1 million students enrolled in public four-year colleges and 3.9 million students enrolled in private four-year nonprofit colleges, marking drops from 7.3 million and 4.0 million enrolled students, respectively, from spring 2019, the last year which was not affected by the lockdowns.

Once again, much of this loss is the result of the widespread and oppressive Wuhan flu policies of colleges. For far longer than the rest of society these universities demanded students either wear masks and get jabbed. Like the public schools, many also remained closed far longer than the private sector.

College students go to college for two main reasons: First, they want to get a good education, and second, they want to experience a new social life away from home for the first time. The oppressive and restrictive COVID policies of these universities eliminated the second entirely. How can you meet other students and get involved in new social activities if the campus is closed and you are forced to attend all classes remotely? And even if you can go to class, being forced to wear a mask the entire time is certainly going to put a crimp on having an open and pleasant social atmosphere.

The blacklisting culture of many public colleges however has added another reason for abandoning college as an option after high school. If you and your family are conservative or religious, there simply aren’t many colleges you can attend without feeling you are an outcast who at any moment might be subjected to Orwell’s two minute hate. Why subject yourself to that?

Furthermore, the unwavering leftist agenda being pushed by these schools means that you also won’t get an open-minded and well-rounded education. It will be queer politics, leftist economics, and Democratic Party advocacy from morning to night. This isn’t a good education. It is a waste of time, and actually detrimental to developing the ability to think critically.

Will this decline in attendance at public schools and colleges continue? Based on all evidence it appears it will, since the education community seems unwilling to change its ways. The question remains however whether good alternatives will develop to replace these government education institutions. Many states, such as Arizona, have now passed laws allowing parents to apply all the money they pay in taxes for schools to any school or education program they desire. If they want to take their kids out of the public schools, they can use the tax dollars that would have gone those schools entirely for home-schooling or for a private school of any kind.

Such laws will certainly accelerate the abandonment of the government’s K though 12 schools, and promote the development of competing private schools. With competition the former public school monopolies will be forced to face a choice: Reform their operations or die.

As for colleges, there as yet have not been many changes in their funding. Almost without fail public colleges continue to get their state funding, with no pressure to change their behavior. In addition few new alternative colleges have been established, mainly because the regulatory rules for establishing a college are so odious. The established university system has done a great job in the past century to cement its power over education, making it very difficult for new colleges to form.

The consequences here could be dire. Without alternatives in higher education, the young people who flee the college system will find themselves unable to get that education. Though it is entirely possible to self-educate yourself, the long term result will almost certainly be a less educated population. Society will begin more and more to resemble the society from the movie Idiocracy, where critical thought is impossible and all is collapsing. This classic scene from the movie encapsulates the future we face:

Sadly, daily events often makes it seem as if we are already living in an Idiotocracy world. Rather than prevent it, we might now actually be tasked with the far more difficult job of rebuilding civilization.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

16 comments

  • Cotour

    Not to worry, that 1.4 million lack in students will soon be made up of illegal immigrants’ children in public schools strategically incentivized and imported into the country by the Radical Leftist Destroy America Democrat party machine.

    AND YOU WILL BE PAYING FOR THEM ALL BY LAW! (I am yelling)

    And what do you think all of these illegals fleeing Socialism and their economically dead countries are doing while they are being housed in the many hotels and motels where they presently are residing? They are creating anchor babies.

    And I have no problem with LEGAL IMMIGRATION, I embrace and encourage it. But what is currently unfolding is a Radical Democrat Party sinister plan of domination and perpetual political control of the country.

    And the optimist in me thinks that it will in the end bite them hard in the end and it will cost them dearly in the coming years.

    But that’s me.

  • BLSinSC

    I have ALWAYS been against abandoning OUR Public Schools and surrendering to the leftists! No, the ANSWER is to TAKE BACK OUR schools and make them what they SHOULD BE! Eliminate the Teachers Unions from the schools and limit them to SALARY and Benefits negotiations! They should in no way be involved in the curriculum nor administrative decisions! Then remove all the liberal crap and revert to BASIC EDUCATION! Kids need to learn to READ, WRITE, and do Math so they can function in the REAL world!

  • Cotour

    BLS, I agree with you.

    The radical Left is using lawfare and the Constitution against itself in order to execute the / a Cloward and Piven type strategy via the teacher’s union and the courts.

    And in their administrative dominance within these institutions, they have endeavored to not educate but to indoctrinate because they are “experts” and know how things should be.

    Be afraid, I talk to teachers all the time and I also talk to NYC corrections officers and police officers, black white and every other flavor and they are in 100 % agreement with me.

    And what lately has begun discussions about the subject at hand?

    https://mms-images.out.customink.com/mms/images/catalog/colors/116248/views/alt/front_large_extended.png?design=tzw0-00cq-q1gj&pblegacy=1&pblegacysize=big.

    I am producing and selling these tee shirts and who stops by and talks to me about it and wants one? So far, teachers and corrections officers and it is very gratifying for me that they recognize the truth of the matter being in the belly of the beast. And where do they intend to wear the tee shirt? To work as an example to the children and young people who they are in charge of.

    I share with them my observations: Children are being taught hatred and racism in school and in their homes and not being taught Mutual Respect. They immediately agree.

    Its not them, they are normal everyday hard-working Americans. It is the administration and those who have been “educated” and are experts that know better than all others. (Read: Indoctrinated in the Liberal Leftist Radical mind think)

    Thomas Sowell on “Experts”: https://youtu.be/m60EMIgSVUs

    Be afraid.

    Political warfare of the first and fundamental order.

  • James Street

    “Many states, such as Arizona, have now passed laws allowing parents to apply all the money they pay in taxes for schools to any school or education program they desire.”

    Vouchers are the simplest solution. Free market. Let parents decide what’s best for their children.

  • LongTimeTexan

    Our schools are filled with vile, evil, sexually perverted, sicko, freaks, totally devoid of any moral fiber and who have no intention of teaching your children school subjects, but are dedicated to making your children into vile, evil, sexually perverted sicko freaks like they are. Get you children out of public schools.

  • Cotour

    “Vouchers are the simplest solution. Free market. Let parents decide what’s best for their children.”

    And the Democrat party machine being owned and obligated to the absolutely perverted and corrupt teachers union who is filled with high minded Socialists, radicals, “progressives” and worse.

    Joe Biden, Randi Weingarden: “Your children are not yours, they belong to us all”. (And you as a parent has no business being involved in what your children are being taught)

    “It takes a village”, a Ma Barker famous quote.

    And Ma Barker is at the core of all of this chaos and corruption, 100%.

  • Cotour

    And this is another aspect of this “You will do as you are told” model of government domination:

    https://youtu.be/7bMjDCXYHtk

  • OUR Public Schools

    What does that even mean?

    Who are “we”? Public schools are – even today – mostly a local thing. “We” is at most a state’s population; city is probably more relevant. I don’t care about your schools and there is no reason for you to care about mine. In a forum such as this, there is no “we” that can be attached to public (K-12) schools.

    What are “Public Schools”? Are school boards, the process of staffing them, and the scope of their authority included? Just the physical plant? The teachers? The administrators?

    I don’t see how fleeing to alternatives or burning it all down can be considered “surrendering to the leftists”. Picking a better alternative or starting over is not “surrender”.

    I didn’t surrender when I left Denver. If the people there want to live like that, it’s fine with me. I don’t want to live like that, so I left.

    My (probably repeated to the point annoyance) comments about Musk taking SpaceX out of the US is not about him “surrendering”. He can still accomplish his goals, just not here.

    I grant you that it’s not “fighting”, but at some point one must realize that one can accomplish one’s own goals without tilting at other people’s windmills. Feel free to fight the good fight to reform the system into whatever suits you, but opting out is a valid alternative.

  • James Street

    Yep Cotour, when Hillary said “it takes a village” she meant “it takes the government”.

    I still believe the swamp will be drained peacefully through local action, the courts, etc. But I’m always ready to be like
    https://tinyurl.com/ycyd78ba

  • 370H55V I/me/mine

    Idiocracy, not Idiotocracy.

  • RAH

    Schooling started out as private endeavor by parents and people who sought to serve the demand for teaching. Many parishes taught young children their letters and how to read and write . Why? Because parents were too busy to earn a wage , run a business or to raise crops and livestock or to support the family for housing food and shelter.
    Parents then grouped together and fund to pay for a teacher and a building. If the teacher did not teach the subjects the parents wanted , then they were fired. As numbers grew in towns and cities these efforts expanded. Later we instituted local government to run city and town business, that included education.

    People looked for good teaching models and the Prussian system attracted notice and was adopted. The Prussian system was designed to create good factory workers , trained to the bell. The problem was as populace grew the disconnect from control by the parents to the government grew.

    Home school is great if the family has the luxury of a parent that can supervise the education. Pod teaching came up during the pandemic and parent grouped and hired a teacher to teach small groups of children. Back to the basics.

    Giving the money back to parents is good because it allows the parent to use businesses that will serve their needs. Get the money away the the teachers union that have turned into indoctrination centers designed to destroy family bonds.

  • Cotour

    “Giving the money back to parents is good because it allows the parent to use businesses that will serve their needs.”

    And this fact is precisely why the now radical un and anti-American Democrat party machine will do ANYTHING to prevent this from reverting to what it used to be.

    And I mean ANYTHING.

  • Pete

    Alas, a “kaw-lige edukashun” is not what it was 30 years ago. The outrageous anti-White, anti-Christian, anti-American indoctrination that is the core of current halls of academia makes the degree-holder into a mentally disturbed, self-loathing yet narcissistically absorbed twit, poorly functional in any organization. Critical thinking skills should be honed, but the universities of today squash this in favor of the most horrific Orwellian group think mind control on young people who have no concept of historical truth.

    Better to encourage young people to enter a trade school to learn a usable skill than flush outrageous amount of money down the toilet of marxist/CRT/woketard/tranny brainwashing.

  • DSmith2

    “The consequences here could be dire. Without alternatives in higher education, the young people who flee the college system will find themselves unable to get that education. Though it is entirely possible to self-educate yourself, the long term result will almost certainly be a less educated population. ”

    As if they’ve been getting an education for, oh, the last 60 years. Let’s hope that people get less of that “education”. Maybe the country will start to work again, and the insanity levels will go down.

    Every Single Problem in this country is downstream from what happens to young people at the universities. Every one. The way to make it stop is to *make it stop*.

    We’ll figure out what comes next afterwards. Or rather, the young people will. I see them doing that already, all over the Internet. All that’s missing is a way of proving what they’ve learned. I expect non-university tests/certificates are the inevitable replacement. The current rush by the schools to eliminate both entrance requirements and meaningful grades will simply result in completely unqualified people with “degrees”. Businesses, desperate to hire trainable people, will begin to favor other indications of competence. They can’t *require* them, per the idiot SC, but there’s nothing to keep people from putting them down on their resumes. This way is the future. Universities are toast for all but those fields where it is required by law. The smart young people are already routing around. In fact, at this point, if you’re a smart young person and you’re not routing around, maybe you’re not that smart. :)

  • 370H55V I/me/mine: Fixed. Thank you. I thought I had corrected that before publishing, but apparently I did not.

  • Cotour

    Related:

    Gay Man Just Gave The Best Rant You’ll Hear Today

    https://youtu.be/MN7Izhs_PbQ 2:30 min.

    The Gay movement just like the Feminist movement has been highjacked by the Radical Left “Progressive”, “Woke”, indoctrinate children, anti-America, anti-freedom agenda segment of the now Radical Authoritarian Democrat party.

    Finally, sanity, BOOM!

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