K-12 in the US is currently being disrupted, and in this article below there’s many factors involved.
One that isn’t frequently cited elsewhere is the reduced number of children attending school because of reduced birth rates. Plus presumably soon public school students will be reduced by removal of some portion of Illegal Immigrants whose children have been attending school mostly “no questions asked” about citizenship.
Then there’s the AI in Education disruption that is coming soon to a school district near you, along with greatly increased Vouchers through the recent omnibus bill passed by Congress. *see earlier Post at PSA about Federal Voucher support in that huge bill.
Generally the NYT tends to be in alignment with what the teachers’s unions perspective on change might be, and vouchers have been a no-no for that group, as well as the Democrat party for the most part.
It’s actually similar to the “charter schools good vs charter schools bad” alignment which had some Democrat support but mostly was on the “is bad” side of the street for blue-ists.
Which might be ironic in that while many vouchers will be used by wealthy parents, and Christianity-first parents, for which the bill provides the most useable tax breaks, the most needful of change students are those attending Public Schools in the inner cities, and sometimes way out in the rural boonies where the tax base is very low.