Public-School Enrollment Falls as Choice Programs Rise

Public school enrollment began dropping during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued its downward spiral ever since. For years, Education Reporter has chronicled this trend, most recently last March when we described the failure of public-school students to master basic skills and the subsequent transfer of many to charter schools, microschools, and homeschools.

News Nation reported on the continuation of the trend in 2025, writing: “Public school enrollment is on the decline across the United States as school choice programs grow in popularity.” The article noted that two-thirds of U.S. public school districts in 37 states have experienced declines in enrollment since the pandemic.

Psychotherapy for Schoolchildren without Parental Notification

The persistence of public-school officials to get into their students’ heads continues, with new information surfacing seemingly every day. On September 3, Phyllis Schlafly Eagles received word from a concerned parent about a change in Illinois law which, as a letter from the Edwardsville, IL School District explained, “impacts how schools provide counseling services to students.”

The letter “informs” parents about the new state mandate 405 ILCS 5/3-550, which reads:
“Any minor 12 years of age or older may request and receive counseling services or psychotherapy on an outpatient basis. The consent of the minor’s parent, guardian, or person in loco parentis shall not be necessary to authorize outpatient counseling services or psychotherapy.” [Emphasis added.]

Loudoun County Public Schools Stir Up
Parental Outrage & Political Fallout

Last May, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported that several male students, discomfited by a female student using their locker room and filming them on her phone, were being investigated by the Virginia Attorney General’s office for sexual harassment under Title IX.

The saga began early this year, when Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) opened an investigation after several male students at Stone Bridge High School asked why the girl, who identifies as male, was allowed to access their locker room. According to the sports and political commentary website, OutKick, the biological female “secretly recorded the boys when they questioned why a girl was in their locker room, and she later accused them of sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination.” The LCPS launched its investigation despite the fact that the girl’s actions in recording the boys was in itself a violation of district policy.

‘Woke’ Math Movement Gains Steam with Support from Socialists

Variations of “woke math” are unfortunately nothing new. In October 2023, Education Reporter described California’s “equity-based math” and in May 2024, we reported on a Bill Gates-backed curriculum titled “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction,” that focuses not on math but on teaching kids that traditional math education is “white supremacy.”

For many years, Phyllis Schlafly documented the failure of the U.S. school system to adequately teach math by implementing curriculum fads such as “Feel Good Math”, new math, fuzzy math, liberal math, etc.