Private schools pull students away from public schools - Axios

Private schools pull students away from public schools - Axios

Private schools pull students away from public schools

Private institutions are attracting wealthy families who are frustrated with public schools' flip-flopping on remote and in-person learning.

Why it matters: The trend is weakening public schools, which will lose funding as they lose students, and deepening the divide between how rich and poor kids are educated.

What's happening: In districts across America, public schools have had to follow local and state guidelines and stick with online school, while private schools have offered in-person alternatives.

• That's appealing to parents who are fed up with virtual learning because it forces them to juggle work and child care or because the schooling is not as high in quality as in-person instruction.

Just 5% of private schools were virtual this fall, according to survey data from the National Association of Independent Schools, cited by CNBC. Compare that with the 62% of public schoolkids who started the fall on Zoom, per Burbio, which has been tracking public school re-opening plans.

Private schools have a clear advantage in how they've been able to handle the pandemic:

• They were able to devise and advertise their reopening plans throughout the summer while CONTINUE READING: Private schools pull students away from public schools - Axios

Biden leaning toward Miguel Cardona for education secretary - Axios

Biden leaning toward Miguel Cardona for education secretary - Axios

Miguel Cardona emerges as Biden's choice to open schools

Joe Biden is leaning toward nominating Miguel Cardona, education commissioner in Connecticut, to serve as secretary of the Department of Education and lead a reopening of the country's schools, according to people familiar with the matter.

Why it matters: Cardona, who has focused on reopening schools in his home state, emerged as the president-elect leaned away from another potential candidate, Leslie Fenwick, dean emeritus at Howard University, and two teacher's union candidates. A final decision has not been made.

The big picture: Biden has pledged to reopen the majority of U.S. schools within his first 100 days as president if Congress helps with financial support. It's urgent as parents and educators fear losing a generation of scholars due to coronavirus shutdowns that sent children to remote learning.

• There have been broad inequities in this digital environment, spurring a movement to get kids back in classrooms and to secure the health of teachers who must stand before them.
• “In-person education is too important for our children to disrupt their education further, unless and until local conditions specifically dictate the need to do so,” Cardona and the acting public health commissioner wrote to school superintendents last month, according to the Hartford Courant.
• A Biden transition spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Biden moved toward Cardona after initially considering two high-profile representatives of the two largest teachers' unions: Lily Eskelsen Garcia, former president of the National Education Association, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

• In picking neither, Biden appears to have sidestepped any sibling rivalry between the NEA and AFT.

Zoom in: CONTINUE READING: Biden leaning toward Miguel Cardona for education secretary - Axios