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As We Turn Schools Into Culture Wars, The Kids Just, Uh, Aren’t Showing Up
Years ago, I did this men’s workout group with a few cool guys and largely a series of douchebags. Their kids were either in the one or two good public schools within an urban core, or went to private or religious schools. One of these guys, who I tried to drunk-dial about nine months ago and it appears he has my phone number blocked (reasonable), was running for School Board. A couple of times when I worked out with him, he would bemoan how kids “disappeared” during COVID. I thought he went like, the truancy issue, or kids not responding to “Zoom School.” Stuff like that, since he was running for office. He meant that a little bit, but really he meant that his friends’ kids were leaving public for private. That’s a “crisis” in some sense, depending on how you look at the role of public education in society, but it’s not the worst thing.
How about kids who just, uh, like, don’t go to school anymore? Even as young as 7–8?
That’s happening in many urban districts, as revealed in a few different articles and data sources that I’ve encountered over the last year. I read this one last night:
