WYFF News 4 Investigates is working to learn how parents are making back-to-school decisions for their children. More than 800 parents responded to a survey conducted earlier this month.Based on the results, many families are switching from public to private school this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. WYFF News 4 has asked several private schools about enrollment, and many have said they have growing waitlists from growing interest. “We’re limiting the size of our classes,” Kyle Boyles, head of school at Oakbrook Preparatory School in Spartanburg, said. “We have waiting lists for virtually all of our classes. We do have some parents that are bringing students here for the first time, and some of it is because of this.” Parents WYFF News 4 spoke with said they were fed up with e-learning and teaching their kids at home. Keri Bentley has four daughters. Her oldest will stay at Wade Hampton High School, while her three younger children were taken out of public school and will now head to private school for the first time this year.”We were still going to have to pay someone to facilitate the e-learning,” Bentley said. “Having four kids at home and two working parents, it just isn’t feasible.” Bentley called Greenville County Schools disorganized. She said she wanted more structure and the option to have in-person instruction five days a week. Jennifer Owens felt the same way about her kids. She took her children out of Paris Elementary and placed them in Abundant Life Christian School. She made the choice in June, after deciding her public school district was too indecisive. “We’ve loved it, and it’s sad that we’re having to leave, but we were forced to make another choice,” Owens said. “Class size is small enough and the facility itself is large enough to be able to social distance and still have some type of in-school or in-person learning. It was moreso trying to get some normalcy back for them because it’s been hard not having the structure that they need.”Owens has had to dip into her 529 savings plan for her kids to pay for private school. Bentley said she and her husband would keep a closer eye on their budget while shelling out thousands on private school education for three children. Jessy Carlisle said her mother was helping her pay for her son to go to private school. While she works at home, Carlisle said based on the e-learning experience in the spring, she would not be able to juggle supervising her son and working. “Yes I’m home, but I have a first grader,” Carlisle said. “He’s not going to open up his own computer, he can’t read, a lot of the responsibility would fall on me. It didn’t make sense for me to have to quit my job to do virtual learning with my son. That’s not fair to me. I’m not a teacher. I didn’t go to school to teach him.”Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association, said the move by several parents to opt for private school for a limited time could backfire. She said most public school districts have a plan to phase in five-day a week in-person learning, and better safety might not be guaranteed in private school compared to public school.“I would hope that parents aren’t making a knee-jerk decision without talking to their schools or superintendents or administrators to see what does school look like before you uproot your kids from their friends and family, their school family,” East said. “It could have a devastating impact on your funding and teaching ratios in public schools. We hire teachers based on the amount of children in the system, and your funding model is based on attendance counts on so many days in.” East recommends parents check the reputation, accreditation, costs, beliefs and types of programs private schools offer before enrolling their kids. She said public school oftentimes depend on consistent attendance numbers for critical funding. Bentley said there is a chance her kids might re-enroll in public schools again, depending on how Greenville County Schools proceeds with the next school year. “Next year, maybe Greenville County will be back in school and we’ll go back to your school, your friends, everything you’ve known this whole time,” Bentley said. “It’s just hurting these students in a way that I fear they’re not going to recover from it. They’re not going to get over this.”When asked if Greenville County Schools was concerned about a drop in enrollment because of students leaving for private schools, Tim Waller, the district’s Director of Media Relations, said this in a statement to WYFF News 4:”At this time, we see nothing to indicate that our enrollment is down because of students leaving for private schools. We will have a better idea of our enrollment numbers after the first week of school. If we do see a decrease, we will adjust our staffing accordingly with the understanding that students who transfer to private schools may decide to return to the public school system.”
WYFF News 4 Investigates is working to learn how parents are making back-to-school decisions for their children. More than 800 parents responded to a survey conducted earlier this month.
Based on the results, many families are switching from public to private school this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. WYFF News 4 has asked several private schools about enrollment, and many have said they have growing waitlists from growing interest.
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“We’re limiting the size of our classes,” Kyle Boyles, head of school at Oakbrook Preparatory School in Spartanburg, said. “We have waiting lists for virtually all of our classes. We do have some parents that are bringing students here for the first time, and some of it is because of this.”
Parents WYFF News 4 spoke with said they were fed up with e-learning and teaching their kids at home. Keri Bentley has four daughters. Her oldest will stay at Wade Hampton High School, while her three younger children were taken out of public school and will now head to private school for the first time this year.
“We were still going to have to pay someone to facilitate the e-learning,” Bentley said. “Having four kids at home and two working parents, it just isn’t feasible.”
Bentley called Greenville County Schools disorganized. She said she wanted more structure and the option to have in-person instruction five days a week.
Jennifer Owens felt the same way about her kids. She took her children out of Paris Elementary and placed them in Abundant Life Christian School. She made the choice in June, after deciding her public school district was too indecisive.
“We’ve loved it, and it’s sad that we’re having to leave, but we were forced to make another choice,” Owens said. “Class size is small enough and the facility itself is large enough to be able to social distance and still have some type of in-school or in-person learning. It was moreso trying to get some normalcy back for them because it’s been hard not having the structure that they need.”
Owens has had to dip into her 529 savings plan for her kids to pay for private school. Bentley said she and her husband would keep a closer eye on their budget while shelling out thousands on private school education for three children.
Jessy Carlisle said her mother was helping her pay for her son to go to private school. While she works at home, Carlisle said based on the e-learning experience in the spring, she would not be able to juggle supervising her son and working.
“Yes I’m home, but I have a first grader,” Carlisle said. “He’s not going to open up his own computer, he can’t read, a lot of the responsibility would fall on me. It didn’t make sense for me to have to quit my job to do virtual learning with my son. That’s not fair to me. I’m not a teacher. I didn’t go to school to teach him.”
Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association, said the move by several parents to opt for private school for a limited time could backfire. She said most public school districts have a plan to phase in five-day a week in-person learning, and better safety might not be guaranteed in private school compared to public school.
“I would hope that parents aren’t making a knee-jerk decision without talking to their schools or superintendents or administrators to see what does school look like before you uproot your kids from their friends and family, their school family,” East said. “It could have a devastating impact on your funding and teaching ratios in public schools. We hire teachers based on the amount of children in the system, and your funding model is based on attendance counts on so many days in.”
East recommends parents check the reputation, accreditation, costs, beliefs and types of programs private schools offer before enrolling their kids. She said public school oftentimes depend on consistent attendance numbers for critical funding.
Bentley said there is a chance her kids might re-enroll in public schools again, depending on how Greenville County Schools proceeds with the next school year.
“Next year, maybe Greenville County will be back in school and we’ll go back to your school, your friends, everything you’ve known this whole time,” Bentley said. “It’s just hurting these students in a way that I fear they’re not going to recover from it. They’re not going to get over this.”
When asked if Greenville County Schools was concerned about a drop in enrollment because of students leaving for private schools, Tim Waller, the district’s Director of Media Relations, said this in a statement to WYFF News 4:
“At this time, we see nothing to indicate that our enrollment is down because of students leaving for private schools. We will have a better idea of our enrollment numbers after the first week of school. If we do see a decrease, we will adjust our staffing accordingly with the understanding that students who transfer to private schools may decide to return to the public school system.”
