San Antonio Standard

Texas public school enrollment has dropped by nearly a quarter-million students during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis by the nonprofit policy group Texas 2036.

“There are a projected 242,000 fewer students enrolled in Texas public schools — including both in-person and remote learners — than there were last year,” the group said. “This would be a 4% decline in year-over-year student enrollment, unprecedented in a state that has long had one of the fastest-growing student populations in the nation.”

Many of the missing students could be in private school or are being home schooled, the group said.

“But still, these enrollment numbers raise serious questions for Texas leaders,” Texas 2036 said. “Students without family or community supports may not be maximizing their potential when they are not enrolled in school. Likewise, outside of the classroom, many children are more at risk of hunger, trauma, and other negative experiences.”

San Antonio ISD opened the school year with 2,400 fewer students than last year, KSAT reported.

Two other large school districts, Northside ISD and North East ISD, also reported drops, the station said. The declines were mainly in Pre-K and kindergarten students, the story said.

Some parents of young children did not want to put their kids in front of computer screens all day and so enrolled them in private schools and charter schools, Aubrey Chancellor, spokeswoman for the North East ISD, told the station.

“We knew that there would be some families that would look for some other options,”  including home schooling, Barry Perez, spokesman for the Northside ISD, told KSAT. 

Lower enrollment could result in less state funding for school systems, the story said. The Texas Education Agency refrained from cuts in 2020 and superintendents are hoping it will continue that policy this year, the story said.

There has been a “tremendous uptick” in home schooling nationally during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Texas Home School Coalition said on its website. It cited a Gallup poll showing a doubling of the number of families homeschooling, from 5% in 2019, to 10% in 2020. 

That would translate into more than 670,000 home schooled students in Texas, which would save the state $7 billion each year, the coalition said.