Over one million students have evaporated from public school rolls over the last two years, the New York Times reported late yesterday. “No overriding explanation has emerged yet for the widespread drop-off,” writes reporter Shawn Hubler.
“And since school funding is tied to enrollment, cities that have lost many students – including Denver, Albuquerque and Oakland — are now considering combining classrooms, laying off teachers or shutting down entire schools.
All together, America’s public schools have lost at least 1.2 million students since 2020, according to a recently published national survey. State enrollment figures show no sign of a rebound to the previous national levels any time soon.”
Gee, whatever could have caused that? Did anything unusual happen in the last two years? To be fair to Hubler, she offers at least two obvious explanations, but seems more concerned about the impact on public schools from them rather than the students. Read more…
