Louisiana traditional public and charter schools lost 30,000 students since COVID

Louisiana’s traditional public and public charter schools have continued to lose students since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the student population falling by more than 30,800 students since February 2020, data from the Louisiana Department of Education shows.

The Louisiana Department of Education collects student enrollment data every February and October for traditional public and charter schools. In October 2022, the state had around 685,600 total students in those schools – a decline of 4.3% from more than 716,400 in February 2020, just before the pandemic began to drastically impact the state.

Not long after the enrollment data was collected in February 2020, the state’s schools shuttered to prevent the spread of the virus, which has killed around 18,400 in Louisiana. When schools reopened in the fall of 2020, Louisiana’s schools had lost around 16,800 students from its traditional public and charter classrooms.

Lafayette schools population hasn't recovered from COVID

Since October 2020 – the first time the state collected enrollment data since the start of the pandemic – the state has continued to lose students. Louisiana’s traditional public and charter schools are down around 14,625 students between October 2020 and October 2022, a decline of 2%.

Cade Brumley, the state's superintendent of the Department of Education, said the state has invested heavily in ensuring families have choices for educating their children.

“Keeping families in the driver’s seat of their children’s education is paramount to ensuring Louisiana schools meet the needs of students," Brumley said in a statement. "Over the past few years, we’ve helped advance policies and invest millions of additional dollars to expand educational freedom.”

The declining enrollment can have serious implications for a school system. Enrollment is one of the factors used in the state's Minimum Foundation Program, which is the formula Louisiana uses to allocate money to school systems. School districts do have access to their federal pandemic relief funds, however.

Since the pandemic's start in Louisiana, the state has seen the number of schools decline as well, though it's unclear whether it's a result of declining enrollment. From February 2020 to October 2022, the state has gone from 1,400 to 1,385. The decision to consolidate or eliminate schools would largely be made at the district level.

The largest declines in Louisiana were concentrated among preschool special education classrooms and middle schools, the data shows. Since February 2020, preschool special education went from 9,272 students to 5,653, a drop of 39%. Middle schools, including grades 6-8, fell 7.2% from 162,978 to 151,289.

Elementary schools, grades K-5, saw a drop of 5.2% – a difference of about 16,759 students. Non-special education pre-kindergarten saw enrollment fall by 1,525 or 5.5%.

Infant special education, high schools and extension academies saw enrollment grow. Infant special education enrollment grew by 5.4% from 202 to 213. High schools – including grades 9-12 and transitional ninth grade – added 2,706 students for 1.4% growth. Extension academies more than quintupled their enrollment, growing from 13 to 72.

The mass exodus from public and charter schools isn’t isolated to Louisiana. A survey by Education Next, a journal that looks at trends and research in K-12 education, released in 2022 showed that school districts were facing a 4% decline in enrollment from spring 2020 to spring 2022, with nearly two million American students leaving traditional public schools for alternatives, including charter schools, private schools and homeschooling.

The COVID pandemic appears to have done much of the damage. After the pandemic struck, 69 of the 83 districts – including recovery districts, charter schools and the Office of Juvenile Justice – included in the state’s data saw enrollment drop. Sixteen districts saw enrollment fall by 5% or more.

But parent concerns over curriculums and instruction, which has been a hot-button issue in Louisiana and much of the U.S., may also be a factor, particularly as enrollment has continued to drop despite most schools returning to mostly normal or pre-COVID systems.

The Education Next survey found that the conclusions drawn about parental concerns over curriculums and enrollment declines are exaggerated, with only 11 percent of respondents saying their child’s school puts “too much” or “far too much” emphasis on teaching subjects like slavery and racism. Twenty-four percent said their child’s school put “too little” or “far too little” of an emphasis on the subjects.

“In other words, gradual change in education has taken place, and partisanship colored parental reaction to Covid measures in various ways, but changes in parental views about the schooling of their children have been nowhere near as dramatic as protagonists in the public debate over the American school would have one believe,” the journal wrote.

Louisiana had its own battle over "critical race theory" in the legislature in 2021 and 2022. Critical race theory is an academic theory on how policies and laws support systemic racism in America. The measures did not advance far, but the debate drew widespread attention after Rep. Ray Garofalo, a Republican from Chalmette was ousted from his position as chair of the House Education Committee in 2021 after he said schools need to "talk about everything dealing with slavery: the good, the bad, the ugly."

Garofalo quickly walked back his comment, but video of the statement went viral and led to backlash.

Louisiana education board still looking at potential changes to school performance scores

Between October 2022 and February 2022, the Southern University Lab School had the largest increase in enrollment, rising 18.4%. Rounding out the top five – excluding the Office of Juvenile Justice – were Type 2 Charters with 4.1%, Madison Parish with 2.6%, the Louisiana Recovery School District with 2.1%, and Terrebonne Parish with 2%.

The districts with the largest percent decrease were the Thrive Academy in Baton Rouge with a 10.9% loss, the Louisiana Schools for the Deaf and Visually Impaired with an 8.4% decline, and the Baton Rouge Recovery School District with a 6.5% loss. The City of Baker School District also had a 5.4% loss, and Union Parish had a 5.1% loss.

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This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Louisiana schools have lost 30,000 students since COVID pandemic