School's In, But The Kids Are Out: Why Enrollment Continues To Drop
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2021
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
NPR's education team continued to track enrollment this school year and found that while districts have gained students, a significant majority are still not back to where they were prior to the pandemic.
A similar story has unfolded in Los Angeles, Chicago and at more public schools across the nation.
NPR education reporter Cory Turner looked into why students are still not coming back to school and what schools are trying to do about it.
Meanwhile, some of the students not enrolled in public school have started being homeschooled during the pandemic. WBHM education reporter Kyra Miles spoke to Black families in Alabama who are choosing that option in increasing numbers.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Tanisha Grant has a personal lesson learned about schooling in the pandemic. |
| 0:04.4 | Sorry to put down this myth that in person learning is best, but that's not true. |
| 0:11.5 | Over the last two years, we've heard from lots of parents desperate to get their kids |
| 0:15.1 | back into the classroom. |
| 0:16.8 | But for Grant's 14 year old son, remote schooling has been a silver lining in the pandemic. |
| 0:22.0 | He's excelling and she's worried about COVID. |
| 0:25.6 | So when their school district said every student had to return to the classroom, she said |
| 0:30.5 | no. |
| 0:31.5 | The school has basically been given my son work on Google classrooms, but for the |
| 0:35.8 | market period, you know, when we had the teacher parent conference, you know, when I talked |
| 0:40.5 | to his teacher, you know, a couple of them was clearly upset about the fact that my |
| 0:45.4 | son was doing the work, but it gets a credit because he wasn't coming into in person |
| 0:49.6 | learning. |
| 0:50.6 | So they're penalizing us. |
| 0:52.1 | Grant lives in Harlem, New York and founded a group called Parents Supporting Parents Back |
| 0:56.3 | in 2000. |
| 0:58.0 | This year, the group has been advocating for a permanent remote schooling option. |
| 1:02.0 | A lot of our families are traumatized by the virus, by the pandemic. |
| 1:07.9 | And you know, their children are aware of that. |
| 1:09.7 | And I have children that are telling their parents, I don't want to go to school because |
| 1:13.1 | I don't want to get the virus and come home and kill you. |
| 1:16.0 | And this was all before Omicron was even a factor. |
... |
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