By Jimmy Sengenberger | SOURCE: THE GAZETTE
In the pandemic’s aftermath, Colorado’s public PreK-12 school system faces deteriorating enrollment. Contrary to the narrative spun by politicians, educrats and teachers union bosses — that the slump is simply due to demographic shifts, unaffordable housing and COVID-19 — it’s far from the full story.
Last week, the Denver Gazette reported 1,800 fewer students were enrolled at the October count, a 0.20% year-over-year dip.
While Colorado’s population burgeoned, education department data reveals public-school enrollment plunged by 30,024 students (3.3%) in the 2020-2021 school year — the state’s first drop since 1988. The subsequent rebound for 2021-2022 was modest, regaining just 3,318 students (0.38%).
The statewide exodus continued, stimulating a net loss of 31,759 students, or 3.5%, since the pandemic’s onset.
This year’s decline was dominated by a 2.88% drop in kindergarteners and first-graders. While decreasing birth rates and decelerating population increases contribute, they don’t fully explain the persistent 30,000-plus gap below pre-COVID levels — especially given the preexisting, decade-long trend of declining enrollment in these early grades, dropping roughly 12% since 2013.
Denver Public Schools is an outlier, garnering a 371-student boost for October — fueled by an influx of students who’ve arrived illegally, predominantly from Venezuela.
That number is now roughly 2,700 — yet this shocking surge in undocumented students is no guarantee for the long-term. Their families currently benefit from substantial government assistance, but once that spigot stops and the cost of housing kicks in, they may find Denver unaffordable, triggering fresh enrollment declines.
Let’s be serious: Blaming the pandemic and birth rates must not empower political and school district leaders to deflect from their own culpability and accountability.
In response to COVID, districts hastily closed schools and shifted to woefully inadequate “remote learning” — despite resounding opposition to these reactive policies and warnings of inevitable academic, social and mental health calamities.
Families found themselves at the mercy of their school districts’ decisions, generating disparities in educational opportunities and quality. Remote learning lifted the veil from the inner workings of classrooms for the first time, often exposing contentious curricula. Dissatisfaction with the status quo swelled amid rampant learning loss and an intensifying youth mental health crisis.
Consequently, parents across America started to question and challenge educational norms — withdrawing their children from public schools and challenging district policies at school board meetings.
“Parents aren’t taking it anymore,” Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, said on my 710KNUS radio show. “They saw what was happening with the school closures. They saw the curriculum that doesn’t align with their values. They started pushing back at school board meetings.”
As the Denver Gazette reported, full-time homeschooling grew by 8% to 9,406 students. While charter school enrollment purportedly dropped by 1.8%, schools operated by the statewide BOCES and Charter School Institute jumped year-over-year by almost 52% and 5%, respectively.
These enrollment shifts reflect parents voting with their feet — actively choosing alternative education options amid persistent failures to recoup learning loss. Among Denver metro districts, only Douglas County Schools (#7 in the state) surpasses pre-pandemic proficiency levels — and for all grades 3-8 — boasting 61.6% in English and 50.7% in math.
Conversely, a mere 30% of DPS students meet math standards, and 40% are proficient in English — both 2.5 percentage points worse than 2019 levels, with even lower numbers among Black and brown students.
While Denver grapples with financial challenges and years of uniquely inept leadership, its scores align closely with state averages. Statewide, only 43.7% achieve English proficiency; just 32.9% meet math standards. Both numbers trail roughly 2 percentage points behind 2019 levels.
Here’s the thing: High schoolers haven’t escaped this academic malaise unscathed, either.
DPS recently celebrated a 2.5 percentage point increase in the four-year graduation rate, reaching a record-high 79.0%. The 5-year graduation rate showed a slight uptick to 80.8%, while the 6-year rate dipped marginally to 80.7%. Although encouraging, can improved graduation rates genuinely serve as the ultimate measure of academic achievement and college readiness?
Throughout Colorado, PSAT and SAT scores doggedly fall short of pre-pandemic benchmarks, just as ACT scores have dropped for six consecutive years.
Even if Denver achieved a 100% graduation rate, what value does graduation hold when there are students essentially being passed through the system without acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge?
In fact, Denver and other districts champion “equity grading” — deeming it “unfair” to assign an “F” for incomplete or failed work. Rather than holding students accountable, this approach marks such assignments “Incomplete” with no GPA impact. Students are offered “credit recovery” opportunities.
DPS pushes excessive leniency through professional development workshops and books like “Grading for Equity,” which defends grade inflation. It’s a new take on “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
While grades determine graduation eligibility, compromising performance standards is counterproductive and debilitating to students’ educational and professional futures. Are we setting up our college-bound students to fail while burdening them with astronomical student loan debt?
Let’s be real: Graduation alone is an inadequate metric for true achievement — especially when learning loss recovery remains dismal and approaches like “equity grading” prevail.
In his forthcoming book, “The Parent Revolution,” Corey DeAngelis powerfully argues for funding the student, not the system — empowering families to redirect education dollars for themselves. If Colorado’s academic trends teach us anything, it’s this: while robust public education is invaluable, we must guarantee parents their exclusive right to choose what’s best for their children’s education.
Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and host of “The Jimmy Sengenberger Show” Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on News/Talk 710 KNUS. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.