Written by Winnifer Chen
K-12 schools all over the nation have been in session both virtually and in person since late August or early September. With many public schools not being able to open for in-person instruction early this fall, some parents decided to enroll their children in private schools for the in-person learning experience. However, parents who do not have the means of homeschooling or sending their kids to private schools are forced to accept and comply with their district’s reopening plans.
As much as schools are dedicated to providing their students with the most accessible and effective learning resources and environments, most public schools are not able to allow students to be back in person due to their limited resources and budgets.
The reopening of schools has become an imperative decision both for the wellbeing of students and the schools’ access to state-funded resources. Since the pandemic moved classes and extracurricular activities online, public schools have had to provide their students with access to technology, whether that is loaning out devices or providing internet access to every single student enrolled in their district.
Resources such as afterschool tutoring have also been limited since schools went online. While there is a greater demand for their teachers’ attention, students attending public K-12 schools have not been receiving as much help from their teachers and peers because the virtual learning environment makes it difficult for teachers to observe how their students are doing.
When examining average student-to-teacher ratios, it is clear that the public-school ratio of 16.1 does not allow teachers from fully recognizing the needs of their students and subsequently leads to a lack of assistance (Lindenberger, 2020). At the same time, students attending private K-12 institutions, where the student-to-teacher ratio is 12.2, still have access to the resources they had before since they are mostly in person (Lindenberger, 2020).
Furthermore, there have been discussions about potential cuts in public schools all across the country since July. The Education Commission of the States “announced an average cut of 15 percent to their overall budgets” due to slow business growth resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic (Barshay, 2020). Additionally, the same commission said that a “second round of deeper cuts is expected in the fall” (Barshay, 2020).
Traditionally, public school funding for the upcoming fiscal year was determined by the number of students enrolled up until the first week of October (Kamenetz et al., 2020). This system, however, favors districts that “get more of their funding from local property taxes” in addition to “state aid” calculated based on total student (Kamenetz et al., 2020). Such budget allocation methods pressure schools to reopen despite the persistence of the pandemic or student, teacher, and parent protests against complete in-person instruction.
Without sufficient government funding, many public schools inevitably suffer from the lack of resources necessary for a semester of online classes. Thus, incentivized by larger budgets for the following fiscal year, some public schools have chosen to reopen schools despite a continuous increase in positivity rates.
On the other hand, with their larger budgets and smaller total student enrollments, private schools have the ability to implement safety precautions in their classrooms and therefore reopen with less concern (Murphy, 2020). Moreover, despite the impacts of the pandemic on the economy as a whole, there has been an increase in enrollment at private schools this fall. Although “[the pandemic] is extremely fluid,” many economists have speculated that “[private schools] will see […] enrollment increases in the new year” (McCluskey, 2020).
It is clear that COVID-19 has forced countless families to reconsider their children’s education, regardless of their income prior to the pandemic and the opportunity costs of choosing either mode of instruction. For families that prioritize their financial spending over their kids’ K-12 education, public schools are the more economical decision because despite technological issues that hinder effective virtual learning, private school tuitions can be an enormous financial burden especially during this time. In contrast, families that prioritize the overall educational experience over the amount of money they can put towards education find private K-12 instruction more attractive.
From the reopening of New York City public schools, it is evident that it requires a lot of detailed planning and careful execution to ensure that students and teachers can return safely back to school. According to a CNN news article published at the end of October, “124 of [New York City’s] 1,600 public schools have had to close down at least partially for a minimum of 14 days” due to COVID-19 cases in different classrooms (Grayer, 2020). Grayer explains that while there are certainly flaws to New York City’s current in-person instruction, the reopening of their public schools can and will serve as an example for other districts planning to move on from complete virtual learning.
Ultimately, how long public schools will remain virtual depends on the current situation and is likely to change with the coming of a new semester. At the moment, parents can only continue to speculate and make the most feasible decision for their family.
References
Barshay, Jill. (2020, August 17). Proof Points: How deep coronavirus school budget cuts are expected to harm student achievement. The Hechinger Report. https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-how-deep-coronavirus-school-budget-cuts-are-expected-to-harm-student-achievement/.
Grayer, Annie. (2020, October 22). The preliminary success of reopening New York City schools and what it may mean for other districts. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/20/us/nyc-schools-coronavirus-cases-success/index.html.
Kamenetz, A., Trevino, M. A., Bakeman, J. (2020, October 9). Enrollment Is Dropping In Public Schools Around the Country. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/10/09/920316481/enrollment-is-dropping-in-public-schools-around-the-country.
Lindenberger, Hudson. (2020, October 19). Private School vs. Public School: Facts, Benefits & Statistics. Fatherly. https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/private-school-vs-public-school-facts-benefits-statistics/.
McCluskey, Neal. (2020, September 2). Private Schools: COVID Enrollment Winners or Losers? Cato Institute. https://www.cato.org/blog/private-schools-covid-enrollment-winners-or-losers.
Murphy, Mary Kate. (2020, August 3). Private Schools See Enrollment Spike. The Pilot. https://www.thepilot.com/coronavirus/private-schools-see-enrollment-spike/article_ed2381ee-d5c1-11ea-ac53-ffd411375ba0.html.
Park, Thomas. (2020, August 20). Boy in gray shirt using black laptop computer [photo]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/6MePtA9EVDA/info.