Oregon public schools lose students to private education during pandemic

Oregon’s public school system has seen significant declines in student enrollment since the Covid-19 pandemic began in March of 2020, with roughly 30,000 students leaving the system. 

That figure is the second highest in the United States, according to Stanford University’s Big Local News project, which notes that Oregon has lost 5 percent of its enrollment. 

The study found that the reasons for leaving vary. While some students left the Beaver state, most switched to private education. Others switched to homeschooling, or attending online schools. 

A concerning number of students, however, appear to have disappeared entirely from the system. This problem has become so bad in some areas that districts such as Reynolds, Parkrose, Centennial, Gresham-Barlow and David Douglas have come together to create a shared database to locate missing students who may reappear in nearby districts, Oregon Live reports.

The drop in enrollment poses a challenge to the Oregon public school system, which relies on funding tied to the number of students enrolled. The state currently has around 550,000 students in Oregon public schools, down from 580,000 pre-pandemic. Students' needs have also grown and varied, as schools deal with academic losses incurred during Covid-19 and remote learning sessions.

Oregon Live notes that "all of the state’s 10 largest districts, including Portland, Salem-Keizer and Beaverton, serve considerably fewer students now than they did four years ago."

Additionally, districts serving higher numbers of poorer students and students of color have seen student populations drop by 10 percent or higher.

Demographically, white students were most likely to leave the school system, with white student enrollment dropping by 32,000, or 9 percent, over the last four years. Asian American students also dropped 4 percent, while the populations of Hispanic and multiracial public school students increased. 

Some students who have left told the outlet that they are gone for good. 

Izarar Varela Moore moved to Southeast Portland in 2021. She says that her family moved schools again due to factors such as car break-ins, neighborhood crime, and schooling. 

"It was when we realized that we couldn’t rely on PPS to be a pillar of support for us or our daughter — that was when we realized it was time to go. I would ask for tutoring, resources, supplemental activities and I would get a shrug. It didn’t feel like the kind of education-forward environment that we wanted to put her in," Varela Moore said. "We settled on Camas because the schools are amazing."

The sole district that had more than 7,000 students and rose in enrollment since the fall of 2019 is the Klamath County School District, which is in southern Oregon along the California border.