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Boston Globe

‘Not getting what they needed': Since COVID, larger share of Mass. parents trade public schools for private

Financially, it will be a 'big, huge burden,' Weed said. 'But it's worth it … for them to reach to their potential.' Advertisement Before the COVID-19 pandemic, private schools across Massachusetts were losing students in droves. But in recent years, private school enrollment has remained nearly steady for the first time in decades. Families who left for private schools that were open in-person earlier than their local districts have stayed, while others like Weed's have switched since, in search of different academic or social experiences for their children. A smaller group of parents are also embracing homeschool at much higher rates than ever before. If private schools had kept losing students at the same rate as they were pre-pandemic, they would be down some 10,000 additional children, according to a new study from Boston University researchers. Public schools, meanwhile, have than expected, costing them some 16,000 children since 2020 relative to their pre-COVID rate of decline. The boost to private schools largely comes from more affluent white and Asian families, data show. Advertisement also appear in older national data, the researchers found. The accelerated decline in public school enrollment means financial challenges for districts, Goodman said in an interview. Schools lose enrollment-based state dollars when a student leaves for private school, and districts may have trouble getting town support when fewer residents attend. In recent years, Related : 'It's a problem for the political health of a public school system if it educates a decreasing fraction of families in a community,' Goodman said. 'It will put pressure on districts to reduce staff or in extreme scenarios close school buildings.' The shifts reflect the staying power of pandemic-induced enrollment shifts, with many families leaving public schools amid lengthy school shutdowns, opting to homeschool or send their children to in-person private school environments. The state's tiny homeschool sector nearly doubled in the immediate wake of the pandemic, and remains more than 50 percent larger than in 2019, with about 12,200 students last year. Advertisement Private school enrollment is down about 2.6 percent from fall 2019, but 13.8 percent above the pre-pandemic trend. Sara Wilson, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools in New England, which includes many of the region's elite private schools, said her organization's schools have seen modest growth, on average, although the trends vary widely by school. Related : 'We did see families leaving the public school system to go to private schools that opened in person and sooner,' Wilson said. 'Schools have been able to retain some portion of those families.' Eileen McLaughlin, superintendent of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston's schools, said the Archdiocese's schools are 'seeing signs of growth and upward trends' thanks in part to returning largely in-person in the fall of 2020, before many public schools. 'Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Boston were an important and stabilizing presence for students and parents during the pandemic,' McLaughlin said. 'We are thrilled that families chose Catholic schools for their children and are seeing signs of growth and upward trends.' Other parents, like Weed, have continued to leave their traditional districts post-pandemic, over concerns about lack of rigor or student behavior problems in their public schools. The public school losses have been concentrated in wealthier districts, particularly among middle grade students, defined as grades 5 to 8. Both of Weed's children who are going to private school next year are in those grades. 'My two older weren't really getting what they needed in math or English,' she said. 'So we decided to look elsewhere.' Related : Wilson said many of her organization's member schools have also sought to tamp down the eye-popping tuition numbers in recent years, either through tuition 'resets' or by individualizing costs to families more closely. Still, many Massachusetts private schools have annually Advertisement With such high tuition prices, it comes as no surprise the enrollment shifts are concentrated in the state's wealthiest 20 percent of districts. 'The high income districts, that top 5th, are actually responsible for the majority of public school enrollment losses in the state,' Goodman said. 'There's no sign of recovery in those districts.' Alongside Newton, large declines relative to pre-pandemic trends occurred in communities including Some of these districts have seen sustained controversy over particular district policies that some parents see as watering down the curriculum. Newton has expanded 'mixed-level classrooms,' where students at different achievement levels could learn together. In Cambridge, Still, said Goodman, 'There does seem to be a wider phenomenon of wealthier families generally being dissatisfied.' Francis, Goodman's coauthor, noted behavioral issues may help explain the decline in public middle school enrollment in particular. 'Recent survey data has documented increased behavioral issues, especially centralized in the middle school years,' Francis said. Whatever the cause, Paul Levy, a member of the Newton School Committee, said the lost public school kids are concerning. 'Families in the city were choosing to spend $16 million in private tuition even though they were already paying in their taxes for the public schools,' Levy estimated. 'It means there's less political support within the schools, financial support for overrides and the like. … That's the political result.' Advertisement Even without the shift toward private schools, the state's school-aged population is on the decline, Goodman noted. 'The lines are just going down,' he said. 'It's sad to see in the data, by that measure Massachusetts is a shrinking state." Christopher Huffaker can be reached at