Houston Republic

After nearly a year of disruptions to the traditional classroom setting caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many Houston-area families are using this time to explore alternative learning environments, such as charter schooling and home schooling. 

This switch in classroom preferences, which has occurred in thousands of Texan households with over 250,000 students having left the Texas public school system, is coming with a price for the public-funded school systems across the state. With funding for public schools directly related to enrollment numbers, institutions across Texas, including the El Paso and Austin area, have felt the impact—millions of lost dollars for some districts—in their coffers. 

Per-pupil funding being down aren't Texas public schools' only concern. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) offered a full funding cushion to soften the blow of attendance rate drops caused by the pandemic, but that cushion expired at the end of the Fall 2020 semester. 

Districts could lose tens of millions in revenue, which could in turn force difficult decisions about staff and teachers. 

The answer to the question of where the students have gone varies widely by the family — and thousands are not even being schooled. 

Duncan Klussmann, a professor at University of Houston and former superintendent of the Spring Branch ISD schools, told KHOU11 News in an October 2020 article that trend is puzzling many education experts. 

“I think that’s what everyone is trying to figure out right now,” Klussmann said. “Some students can be homeschooled, so that could be a factor. There could be some students in private settings. And there’s going to be a certain percent of students who just are not enrolling at all.”

Alief ISD Superintendent HD Chambers is particularly worried. According to data from the TEA, Alief has experienced the largest percentage decrease of its students at 8.9% of enrollment lost.

"It's concerning; it's very concerning," Chambers said in the KHOU11 article, noting the age group with the most drastic drop in student body numbers is kindergarten and pre-kindergarten. “It's so difficult to have a 4-year-old or a 5-year-old or a 6-year-old sit in front of a computer monitor and try to learn virtually."

The homeschool trend continues to sweep the state and the nation, though, according to the Texas Home School Coalition.

A Jan. 11 article from Education Daily Wire reported that, in a Real Clear Opinions survey, 40% of registered voters stated they were more likely to consider homeschooling for their children after the pandemic than if it had ever happened.  

COVID-19 is not the only reason that Texas families are pulling out of the public school system, however; according to a Gallup survey, parent frustration and dissatisfaction with the public school system is increasing. The survey reported that the percentage of families with grade-school aged children choosing homeschool this year has doubled to 10%, with the drop in public school satisfaction riding the coattails of record levels of public school approval over the last two decades. 

Gallup found that the percentage of students in public school dropped from 83% in 2019 to 76% in 2020.

"Although parents largely rated the performance of their child's school positively at the end of the last school year, they also reported experiencing considerable challenges brought on by the physical separation from classmates and teachers, a lack of motivation or attention span from their child, and balancing work while assisting their child with schoolwork," the report said. "The latest drop in satisfaction with the quality of their child's education is likely a result of some parents' concern about the effectiveness of remote schooling. This concern has no doubt contributed to the uptick in the percentage of students who will be home-schooled this year."