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The Covid-19 pandemic saw a rise in parental involvement in school curriculum as children were forced to quarantine at home. With new data available, we now have a clearer picture of how this impacted school enrollment and migration to other states — and it’s not good news for California public schools.
For the first time in 20 years, California public school enrollment has now fallen below 6 million with a decrease of 1.4% last year. In urban and more liberal areas of the state like the Bay Area, enrollment dipped as much as 4%. Charter school enrollment also decreased by 2%, while private school enrollment saw an increase of 1.7%.
The San Diego Union Tribune credited a main cause of the changes as that “parents grew frustrated with distance learning” during the pandemic.
Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, says that while frustration with distance learning may be a small part of it, the real drivers are parental concerns over toxic and politicized curriculum in the classroom as well as overall poor academic performance of California schools.
“When these students were put into distance learning at home, parents became more aware of the low quality of education they were getting - and some parents embraced home-schooling because they realized they could do better for their children than the broken public schools,” DeMaio noted.
“Then parents became frustrated as California schools remained closed for 18 months while schools across the nation were still open and safely operating - and even when public schools reopened there were new draconian mask and vaccine mandates,” said DeMaio.
“On top of all of this came the explosive revelations about toxic and divisive curriculum being used in classrooms like Critical Race Theory and inappropriate sex ed concepts - and parents had to decide if public schools were causing more damage than good,” explained DeMaio.
It’s not just poor performance of public schools: families are fleeing California for other states due to a number of factors including high cost-of-living, soaring crime, and increased filth and homelessness.
California is in a net out-migration period, where it is losing more residents than it brings in. The loss in population is why the state lost a congressional seat during the 2020 Census and subsequent reapportionment.
And one of the largest demographics of those fleeing the state? Families with children under age 18, according to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office and data from the IRS.
“Parents are rejecting the draconian policies, the woke ideologies, and these failing schools, but instead of owning up to the failures and making changes, California Democrats and school districts are trying to cover them up and shift the blame,” said DeMaio.
DeMaio points to a current effort by California Democrats to address absenteeism as an example.
Chronic absenteeism has also increased in the state during covid, which is a problem for public schools — who draw funding based on attendance. Democratic State Senator Anthony Portantino has now introduced SB 830, a bill to change school funding from attendance-based to enrollment-based.
“Instead of addressing their failures that are causing high rates of absence and improving the schools, Democrats and school districts are merely trying to change their funding model,” explained DeMaio. “It’s sickening and corrupt and it’s exactly why parents are fed up with it and leaving,” he continued.
DeMaio says that the way to turn things around and improve our schools is to target the school boards and elect better school leaders.
“We need school board members who want to hold administrators accountable, not those that sweep failure under the rug and ignore parents,” said DeMaio. “That’s why we’re targeting school board races in the November 2022 election and we need your help,” he concluded.
DeMaio’s organization, Reform California, is helping parents statewide to organize and demand change. By partnering with local groups and policy think tanks, Reform California seeks to improve collaboration and coordination among various stakeholders who should work together to force changes in schools.
In addition to coalition building to put pressure on existing school board members to enact reforms on their own, Reform California is prepared to take the issue of school reform to the ballot box in the 2022 elections. To do this, they are actively working to recruit, train and support candidates for school boards across the state.
That’s why Carl DeMaio is asking for all concerned Californians to support Reform California’s efforts and join the fight today to restore learning accountability and fix school boards.
Join the Campaign: Restore Learning Accountability and Fix School Boards
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