How schools can win parents’ trust

A year and a half into the Covid-19 pandemic, schools are reopening amid more uncertainty than ever. Just about the only thing districts know for sure is that last year’s lockdowns and online learning were a
disaster for the emotional health and academic progress of school-aged children — especially the poor — and that in-person instruction is beginning amid the surging Delta variant.
Reopening schools safely is more important and more challenging than ever. Only about half of school districts are requiring masks, while nine states have effectively banned mask mandates. The number of districts that are offering online-school options has doubled to nearly 80 percent in recent weeks.
So persuading families to send children back to school, and providing assurances that they’ll be safe — especially those under 12 who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated — depends on the creativity and commitment of mayors, school districts and teachers.
Localities can no longer take public-school enrollments for granted. The rapid spread of both Covid and alternative-schooling options, from online charter-schools to voucher programs that effectively transfer tax dollars to private and religious schools, have made the return of children to classrooms critical not only for their educational and psychological well-being, but to the long-term viability of public schools.
In the cities and neighborhoods hardest hit, many residents are so fearful of sending their children back to school that they contributed to a 3% nationwide drop in public school enrollments, with the biggest decline, about 13%, among preschool and kindergarten children. In some places, for example Newark, NJ, enrollments are down by a third across both public and charter schools.
Meanwhile, private-school enrollment is up. In a survey of 160 independent schools, at least half said their enrollments were up; another 20% saw enrollments stay about the same. Many said they were at full capacity and didn’t have room for more children. In Republican-controlled states, which are being hit hardest by the highly contagious delta variant, bans
on mask requirements threaten to further erode public-school enrollment, and are pushing many families into religious, private and online schools; some of the latter have a record of fraud and abuse.
The pandemic is also fuelling school-voucher legislation nationwide; over two-thirds of state legislatures are considering bills that would expand or introduce private-school choice programs, some of which benefit fly-by-night schools with dubious curricula, such as classes in creationism instead of biology. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is encouraging parents to use the state’s recently expanded school-voucher program to flee public schools.

—Bloomberg