America


Angry Parents Embrace School Choice


Fed up with teachers unions and slow resumption of in-class learning, they look for other options..


A BY STEVE MALANGA


fter two years of fight- ing the COVID-19 pan- demic, public officials are still debating how schools


should respond to the virus. Despite ample data showing that


virus transmission in schools has been generally weak and that cases among kids are often mild, gover- nors in some states were slow to ease restrictions on schools even as they lifted them on society in general. Where teachers unions are the strongest, schools have been closed the longest. No wonder, then, that for the second straight year, public schools appear to be losing students and, according to a new survey, parents are increasingly embracing school choice. Many of the world’s richest indus-


trialized countries boast scientific and medical expertise that approach- es that of the United States, and have grappled with serious COVID-19 out- breaks for as long as America has. Yet according to UNESCO’s latest


data, virtually all have closed schools for far less time than the U.S. Meanwhile governors in New


York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Cal- ifornia kept mask mandates for kids in place even after they had elimi- nated them in most other settings. The opposite approach was seen


in states such as Florida, Texas, and Utah, where kids have spent the most time in schools and governors have prohibited school districts from imposing mask mandates. Once again, the distinctions by state are striking. Any map ranking


among those whose students spent the most time attending school in person, and they were among the places that dropped COVID restric- tions fastest. The long-term effect of the pan-


demic on public schools may turn out to be one of the most consequen- tial byproducts of the last two years. In the 2020–21 school year, the


PROTEST Parents rally against classroom closures in Northport, N.Y., during the pandemic last April.


the states by how much school their kids have attended during the pan- demic, or by the severity of mandates for children, corresponds closely to the levels of public-sector unioniza- tion and bargaining power of teach- ers in a state. For instance, all 10 states with the


highest level of public-sector union- ization ranked in the bottom half of the country in terms of days with in-person instruction during the first year of the pandemic, while virtually every state with the lowest levels of public-sector unionization recorded among the most days of in-person school learning. This isn’t hard to understand.


Some states granted enormous lever- age to unions by imposing onerous collective bargaining requirements on school districts. These include California, Wash-


ington, Oregon, New York, New Jer- sey, and Illinois — all places where schools closed the most. States that imposed the fewest requirements on school districts to negotiate — including Utah, Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina — were


number of students attending public schools dropped by 3%. The declines were even steeper in earlier grades, suggesting many parents of younger children are exploring other options. Something similar may be afoot


this year. Compiling data from 600 districts that represent a cross-sec- tion of public schools, National Pub- lic Radio recently found that a major- ity of districts are reporting a second straight year of declines, and that few districts regained the kids they had lost the previous year. Private-school enrollment, how-


ever, grew by as much as 6% over the last two years. A recent survey of parents shows


that families are looking for options. More than half of those surveyed said they had searched for a new school for their child during the past year.


This November, 36 governorships


and more than 6,000 legislative seats will be up for grabs. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has pledged to add more charter schools. Given how volatile an issue


COVID and schools became, gover- nors up for election in Democratic- controlled states may have to choose between the wishes of parents and the power of teachers unions.


Steven Malanga is the senior editor of City Journal.


MAY 2022 | NEWSMAX 33


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