280,000+ Missing Students - where are they?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if some of those children never existed in the first place.

Certain school districts are notorious for trying to pad their numbers, failing to acknowledge transfers, etc.

Read the article. They used year over pre-pandemic from the same states pre-COVID. This is 280,000 kids above the number that got lost before the pandemic. And this is only 21 states. Illinois and Texas, among others did not provide data.

Maybe the missing kids from the 21 states moved to the 29 states that didn’t provide data.

[Anonymous]

Prob trafficking

[Anonymous]

Probably a lot of dropouts who decided to work available jobs and make money rather than go to school, especially high school age.

[Anonymous]

Some of them are committing violent crimes like carjackings and ADWs in my neighborhood, and people are like “I don’t understand why 14 and 15 year old kids are doing this!” Schools were closed for a year and a half, dummies. These kids were unsupervised (parents working, in jail, sick, or MIA, and not lucky enough to have other relatives to fill in the gap).

School is a major social support. Of course we can’t just take it away (or make it virtual, these are not children with strong digital access) and not expect repercussions. Here are the repercussions.

The fact that y’all think all these kids are are being homeschooled or virtual learning is sad. You’re too naive. A significant portion of this 280k are MS and HS drop outs and there’s no question it’s worse than it would have been with extended school closures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if some of those children never existed in the first place.

Certain school districts are notorious for trying to pad their numbers, failing to acknowledge transfers, etc.

Read the article. They used year over pre-pandemic from the same states pre-COVID. This is 280,000 kids above the number that got lost before the pandemic. And this is only 21 states. Illinois and Texas, among others did not provide data.

Maybe the missing kids from the 21 states moved to the 29 states that didn’t provide data.

Unless they have data from all 50 states how can they accurately count?

[Anonymous]

Thanks Teachers Union!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks Teachers Union!

Thanks to the crappy parents who let their kids rule the roost! There is no question that my teen would go back to school once schools reopened. Running the streets wasn’t an option. Stop blaming teachers and school closures for crappy parenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks Teachers Union!

Thanks to the crappy parents who let their kids rule the roost! There is no question that my teen would go back to school once schools reopened. Running the streets wasn’t an option. Stop blaming teachers and school closures for crappy parenting.

The problem is that you can be upset that some kids’ parents don’t supervise them or take care of them (I agree this is upsetting and I certainly wish those parents would do better), but it doesn’t change the fact that there will always be parents like this. Especially if abortions are hard to come by and we don’t offer much support to families— they are largely expected to just figure it out. Some don’t, and their kids suffer.

But school is different. It’s something we collectively pay for so that all kids have educational opportunities, and also because it is a form of nurturing and support for kids who don’t get it elsewhere. Taking that away makes me more angry because it’s part of a system I pay into and something that we have decided, as a society, to maintain for everyone’s benefit.

School is the backstop for kids whose parents aren’t doing their jobs. You can be mad at those parents if you want but that’s not a policy position and probably futile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks Teachers Union!

Thanks to the crappy parents who let their kids rule the roost! There is no question that my teen would go back to school once schools reopened. Running the streets wasn’t an option. Stop blaming teachers and school closures for crappy parenting.

YUP!

[Anonymous]

Some were likely lured into sex trafficking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks Teachers Union!

+1

Teachers unions do not represent your children’s best interests. Just the opposite.

[Anonymous]

The reality is that this was most likely driven by socioeconomic circumstances. Poor families that struggled to stay employed during the pandemic, got hit hard by COVID, and had their students drop out to care for younger siblings, work to bring home money, and otherwise support their household. It will be very hard to bring those kids back into the school system after three years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that this was most likely driven by socioeconomic circumstances. Poor families that struggled to stay employed during the pandemic, got hit hard by COVID, and had their students drop out to care for younger siblings, work to bring home money, and otherwise support their household. It will be very hard to bring those kids back into the school system after three years.

+1. Some states allow kids to drop out at 16 with parental consent. It’s politically unpopular to say it out loud, but the kids who are far behind grade level and/ or have dozens of unexcused absences every year by the time they reach high school are not going to get anything out of remaining in the system until they’re 18.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that this was most likely driven by socioeconomic circumstances. Poor families that struggled to stay employed during the pandemic, got hit hard by COVID, and had their students drop out to care for younger siblings, work to bring home money, and otherwise support their household. It will be very hard to bring those kids back into the school system after three years.

+1. Some states allow kids to drop out at 16 with parental consent. It’s politically unpopular to say it out loud, but the kids who are far behind grade level and/ or have dozens of unexcused absences every year by the time they reach high school are not going to get anything out of remaining in the system until they’re 18.

Yes, they do, they get a diploma. It matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably a lot of dropouts who decided to work available jobs and make money rather than go to school, especially high school age.

Likely a large percentage. I actually had someone in a facebook mom group tell me wanting high schools to open in Spring 2021 was racist and classist because then the underprivileged teens would have to quit their day jobs and attend school or drop out and their families would lose the kid's income. Crazy world we live in.