It’s no secret the COVID-19 pandemic greatly disrupted schools across the nation, but a new report finds evidence those disruptions led a large number of traditional public school parents to permanently move their children into a public charter school, homeschool, or a private school.
Citing data collected from 42 State Educational Agencies, the report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools found during the first full year of the pandemic, 1.4 million students left their district public schools. Conversely public charter schools received an increase in enrollment nationally by nearly 240,000 students during this time.
Private schools and home schooling also saw enrollment surges as district public school numbers plummeted.
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools commissioned a survey of 5,002 parents of school-aged children from across the country to learn more about these changes and how likely they’ll be permanent.
Among the findings:
- 89% of parents whose children switched school types experienced a positive change because of the switch.
- 57% of those parents say their child is happier.
- 14% of the switchers left a traditional public school for a public charter school.
Nearly one-third of parents surveyed who switched their child to a different type of school during the pandemic said they switched due to unhappiness with the education their child was receiving (36%) or the environment of their child’s previous school (35%).
This was consistent across parent demographics and was equally cited among those who switched pre-pandemic and those who switched during or since March 2020.
“The data suggests parents like the freedom to choose the best educational experience for their children. This is true across all races, political ideologies, and geographies. It may be the one thing just about everyone in America can agree on,” stated the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in the report.
Pandemic an Education Eye Opener
One of the key underlying findings of the survey is that the pandemic opened the eyes of many parents to their children’s day-to-day school and that affected their views on education in general.
84% of parents surveyed agreed they learned more about how their child was educated during the pandemic and 78% say they became more involved in their child’s education because of what they saw.
This is especially true of lower-income parents and parents of color.
“For many parents, this new interest and involvement may have made them highly motivated to make changes to their child’s education,” stated stathe National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in the report.
Another key finding is that parents who switched their children to a public charter school were consistently more likely than those who did not make this switch to say that these factors have become more important to them; quality of instruction (71% vs. 51%), academic rigor (42% vs. 24%), sense of community (41% vs. 27%), and a culturally affirming environment for their children (30% vs. 16%).
“Choice is better, and now that parents know what it feels like, we think it is likely they are never going to give it up and go back to the way it used to be.”
