The up side is the huge number of parents and children who have figured out that they actually don't need to use their local public schools. A single mom friend of mine took her second-grade daughter out of her public elementary school, due to a combination of the on-again-off-again in-person attendance schedule and the annoying mask mandate. Grandmother watches the kids (2 not old enough for school yet) while mom works, and the second-grader happily says "I'm homeschooling now!" I think she may be using state-provided materials, but the amount of time spent, and who the girl associates with is under family control, and the content is getting much more family attention than when the girl was attending the school in person. If they decide to stick with homeschooling (as I expect a significant percentage of families will), they'll probably progress to investigating non-state curriculum options.

The up side is the huge number of parents and children who have figured out that they actually don't need to use their local public schools. A single mom friend of mine took her second-grade daughter out of her public elementary school, due to a combination of the on-again-off-again in-person attendance schedule and the annoying mask mandate. Grandmother watches the kids (2 not enough for school yet) while mom works, and the second-grader happily says "I'm homeschooling now!" I think she may be using state-provided materials, but the amount of time spent, and who the girl associates with is under family control, and the content is getting much more family attention than when the girl was attending the school in person. If they decide to stick with homeschooling (as I expect a significant percentage of families will), they'll probably progress to investigating non-state curriculum options.