This week, Chicago Public Schools became the latest large school district to opt for online-only lessons in the fall. It's an attempt to minimize the threat of COVID-19 infection, but it leaves a lot of Chicago families unhappy and—like their counterparts around the country—heading for the exits, in search of options that better suit their needs now and in the future.
It's part of an education revolution poised to leave government schools just one option among many, as once-marginalized approaches such as microschools, teaching pods, and homeschooling become perfectly mainstream.
Even so, private schools before the pandemic enrolled about 10 percent of U.S. students, publicly funded but privately run charter schools enrolled about 6 percent of students, and homeschooling steadily grew to encompass at least 3.3 percent of students. Those percentages represent millions of families opting out of traditional public schools in good times.
Then came the pandemic, and a massive face-plant by the nation's government-run schools. Now, "23 percent of families who had children attending traditional public schools say they currently plan to send their children to another type of school when the lockdowns are over," according to some admittedly unscientific polling by the Reason Foundation's Corey A. DeAngelis. "Notably, 15 percent of respondents said they would choose to homeschool their children when schools reopen."
