Rick Brammer and Don Graves’ analysis in the recent article about empty desks in CUSD contained a glaring omission.

They rightfully address three primary reasons for a foreseeable ongoing decline in enrollment including competition from charter and private schools, declining birth rates and lack of affordable housing.

However, this analysis does not account for the fact that 2,000 students left during the pandemic but have subsequently failed to return to CUSD. The three reasons listed would have predicted a significant rebound after pandemic conditions subsided followed by a slow and steady decline.

However, the data clearly show no rebound.

I am writing this to shed light on reasons that CUSD has been unable to attract those 2,000 students back.

You see, I am the parent of six school age children.

My children were enrolled in CUSD up until 2020. None of them have returned, so my family alone makes up nearly half a percent of that number. In addition, there are countless parents and students that I have encountered along the way that fit in the same category. They share most if not all of the same concerns I do.

So, I can speak with authority as I add meaning to the statistical anomaly that Brammer and Graves fail to explain.

First, for the vast majority of students, in-person learning produces superior results. Through the pandemic, charter and private schools were fighting to get kids in classrooms. CUSD staff was fighting to keep kids online. Naturally, those of us interested in the best educational results for our children jumped ship as soon as we could.

Second, in the vast majority of cases, the quality of online education at CUSD was poor. Students I have interviewed would mindlessly sit in front of a screen for hours on end just to fulfill attendance requirements. Teachers were untrained and unable to effectively use technology. Most teachers did not demand any kind of performance from their students. Cheating was commonplace. Naturally, those of us interested in the best educational results for our children jumped ship as soon as we could.

Third, when children were allowed back in classrooms, masks were a significant detriment to early childhood development especially for elementary students who were in the process of learning language, vocabulary, and social interaction. Again, charter and private schools ditched the masks early. CUSD hung on to the masks until the bitter end.

Naturally, those of us interested in the best educational results for our children jumped ship as soon as we could.

Those experiences gave a strong impression that CUSD was more concerned with teachers and administrators than students. Charter and private schools put students first. So, when CUSD did return to classrooms and eliminate masks, we were hesitant to send our children to a school that had proven that it did not prioritize them.

At that time, we started to pay a lot more attention to what was going on. I frequently talk with CUSD parents and students in an effort to know what is happening in our local schools. My decision to keep my children out of CUSD has been reaffirmed time and time again.

A high schooler at Hamilton talked to me about seeing two students having sex in the hallway between classes. This behavior is not conducive to a good learning environment.

A teacher convinced a young man in a CUSD middle school to question his gender identity. He has since transitioned and is now a psychological mess. I want my children to learn reading, writing, math and subjects that prepare them for a lifetime of success. I do not want them subject to psychological abuse by teachers.

A phenomenal history teacher at a CUSD high school has grown increasingly frustrated with the changes in curriculum that deemphasize and sometimes demonize the successes of American democracy and western civilization. I want my children to learn history and be proud of their culture and heritage.

An elementary school teacher at Hancock sent an email to parents that used the word ‘spelt’ when she clearly meant to use the word ‘spelled.’ The teacher that teaches my children spelling should certainly know how to spell.

A teacher at a CUSD high school provided a litter box to a student who believed she was a cat. I believe that an education should be designed to teach what we believe to be true and how to critically examine the world so that a student can add to human understanding and discover even more truth.

To cripple a student by facilitating a false reality is the exact opposite of education. Yes, that teacher is making a student dumber and discrediting the whole idea of truth to every student that sees her making such absurd accommodations.

In all fairness, it is quite possible that sex in the hallways is not the norm, that teachers are not indoctrinating students in gender dysphoria on a regular basis, that revisionist history is the exception, that most teachers know how to spell, and that students who identify as animals are not being accommodated but are being recommended for psychological evaluation and treatment.

But that is not the point. There are 2,000 students and/or parents of those students who have heard these types of anecdotes and have decided that prevalent or not, they can do better.

And our six children have done better. My only complaint so far is that one of my kids had a rowdy class last year. I’ll take that above the horrors that I hear about CUSD.

So Brammer and Graves are correct in their assessment that competition from charter and private schools will continue to eat away at CUSD enrollment. What they missed is the reason the competition is successfully taking away students, and until CUSD takes the competition seriously and starts providing a better education, that trend is here to stay.

Dane Platt
Chandler