A rare instance of an unexpected consequence of a bad policy advancing liberty is the growth in private schools enrolment and homeschooling that occurred as a result of the covid lockdowns. An October 2023 study by Eloise Burtis and Sofoklis Goulas of the Brookings Institution found that 79 percent of American school-age children were enrolled in government schools in the 2021-2022 school year, down from 84 percent enrolled in government schools in 2019-2020. The decline in children attending government schools accelerated because of the lockdowns, and enrollment in government schools continues to decline.
Other researchers have found similar results. For example, the Urban Institute’s Thomas Dee found that during the pandemic hundreds of thousands of children left government schools for private schools and homeschooling.
In October of last year, the Washington Post reported that since before the covid lockdowns there was a 51 percent........