For American families with children, the days following Labor Day typically mark the return to the well-established rhythms of school and work formed over generations. If things feel different this year — a bit anxious, somewhat frayed, and with an air of unease hovering over all of it — it’s likely because the school year getting underway is the third in a row that has been either disrupted or is opening under a COVID-19-induced cloud of uncertainty.

In many locales, even where schools are open for in-person instruction, there are divisive fights over mask mandates (or lack thereof) and quarantine rules. Divisive battles over critical race theory in school curricula continue to play out from statehouses to school board meetings. In all, there is a discernibly sour mood among American parents that may portend an increased willingness to rethink their relationship with local public schools — historically among the most stable and enduring institutional relationships in civil society.