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School Options

I have a couple of friends whose have kids in middle school getting ready to transition to high school. The timing of the pandemic relative to the child's age and engagement at school has led to different outcomes for them and other parents like them. My friends are able to work from home for the most part and their kids are generally doing better than they were before given the increased focus from parents. Neither has decided to go the home-schooling route but they are definitely augmenting the learning at home much more than before. It is no surprise than parents have come to see that they have options other than public school. 

.. a dramatic pandemic increase in work-from-home employment has endured up to the present, accounting for a persistent 30 percent of workdays, despite the efforts of corporate leaders to encourage a broader return to offices. These flexible work arrangements, coupled with the push of high housing costs in many cities, likely contributed to the demographic realignment reshaping school enrollment.

If it turns out that moving to a lower cost home in a neighborhood with a worse school district allows a family to get by with lower income, chances are they might do that, scale back on the career of atleast one parent so they can homeschool the kids. This would be a win-win situation for the family. More time with kids, better education for them and a saner schedule for the whole family. If one or both parents now have the choice of remote or hybrid work then even better. It turns out that all those things are now options for many people and they would be foolish not to take advantage of it. That leads to enrollment rolls this article talks about

The financial implications of enrollment loss have already begun to pressure districts to discuss school closures as well as teacher layoffs. Adapting to this new normal in a way that preserves community engagement and limits further learning disruptions to students will compound the already difficult task of addressing the pandemic’s direct impact on student learning and engagement.

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