Covid-19 continues to transform our local public education system.
60% of Northampton Students are doing all virtual. The remaining 40% are hybrid. As to how many are not returning, we do not have that number yet. Those numbers should be available by mid-September.
The Mirror has spoken with several teachers, and the anecdotal evidence appears bleak.
Many teachers have less than ten students, and several have told the Mirror that they have only 3 to 4 students. One teacher interviewed said that they have class with just one student.
The national trend shows that homeschooling will double from 5% to 10% this year. Families are not enrolling their children in the school system.
A Gallup poll finds that public school enrollment will drop from 83% to 76% nationally. That would be about 3.5 million students leaving public schools.
As COVID-19 continues to disrupt schools in the U.S., parents of school-age children are significantly less satisfied than they were a year ago with the education their oldest child is receiving – Gallop
The Mirror is monitoring the enrollment numbers and will report them when we receive more information.
Rather than stating “As COVID-19 continues to disrupt schools…” it would be more accurate to state “As government actions continue to disrupt schools…” By now we know who the most vulnerable are and who are very unlikely to be affected, and this nationwide lockdown on normal activities has proven to be an enormous and costly blunder that will continue to afflict us for a long time to come.