People are fleeing California in droves; the Golden State has shed a net million people over the past decade. That 2.5% population decline is directly sheeted home to Democrat policies in the ultra-blue state.
Its east coast cousin, equally deep blue New York, seemed immune to the California disease – until last year. Its population increased up to 2019: until a spectacular exodus hit the Big Apple last year. New York had the largest population decline of any state in 2020, losing 6.5% of its population. The decline is so precipitous that New York stands to lose two Congressional seats.
But there’s an even more startling exodus going on in the Big Apple: students are fleeing its public schools.
Enrollment in city public schools has fallen below 890,000 students — down from more than a million kids a decade ago, according to internal Department of Education records viewed by The Post.
The discrepancy can’t be put down to people fleeing another Democrat-run shit-hole. School enrolments have decreased steadily even while New York’s population was still increasing. School enrolments this year have plummeted at more than twice the rate of the population decrease.
Clearly, the remaining New Yorkers are losing confidence in its public school system.
“This year, parents are so unhappy with what they think they’re going to get in September, they’d rather opt for a charter or a private school or leave the city,” said Alina Adams, a mother of three and author who runs the website NYC School Secrets.
Several parents told The Post they have fled the system because the DOE was disorganized and their kids were falling behind. Others say the DOE has diminished its focus on accelerated-learning programs, such as Gifted & Talented, and become more “political” than academic.
People who can afford it are opting for private schooling.
Natalia Petrzela, who transferred her third-grade daughter from a Manhattan elementary to a pricey private school after Thanksgiving, said, “It transformed her life. She went from this scattershot, hybrid schedule with lots of video, even in the classroom, to five days a week in person with a real live teacher. That was a game changer.”
Petrzela, a history professor at the New School, said she is “extraordinarily privileged” but remains committed to speaking out about the public schools. “I know most families can’t make that choice.”
The BFD has already reported on how home schooling has surged over the past year. While home schooling tripled overall, the number of black families opting for home schooling has increased nearly five-fold.
Others have opted for relatively affordable Catholic schools — even though they are not Catholic.
Kathy Wu Parrino and her husband transferred their daughter, Emma, from PS 101 in Forest Hills to Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, which costs about $5,500 a year, last September.
In Australia, Catholic schools have been the private school option for many non-Catholics who couldn’t otherwise afford private schooling.
“We were told by the teachers, ‘Don’t worry about it. Everybody’s behind.’”
Amy Tse’s daughter, Elizabeth, earned a seat in the elite Bronx HS of Science last year, but the family decided she should accept a full scholarship from Saint Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, which boasts a topnotch STEM program.
“I don’t want anything more to do with the DOE,” Tse said, describing her daughter’s “week of hell” trying to sign up for the specialized school exam. “I feel so bad for the parents who have to deal with the DOE system this year”[…]
Meanwhile, rising charter school enrollment is expected to continue, from 125,798 in 2020 to 135,896 in 2021 and 141,866 in 2022, according to the mayor’s office’s budget projections. Charters are publicly funded but privately run.
New York Post
Possibly the COVID pandemic was the straw that broke the back of New York’s public schools. But, more than that, it seems that public schooling is proving yet again the adage, “get woke, go broke”.
In March last year, The Babylon Bee joked that “Teachers at government schools[…]are worried that the longer the schools are closed, the more likely it is that students will begin thinking for themselves”.
It looks like reality has outstripped satire, yet again.
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