School District Enrollments Falling, Compounding Fiscal Challenges

By The Editorial Team

We have been blogging about the financial challenges facing school districts in New York state due to the economic recession, the 2 percent property tax cap, and other factors. Click here for a recent post on the topic. This good article in The New York Times discusses some of the trouble trends facing many larger school districts across the country.  It reports that half of the school districts in the country have seen steady declines in enrollment over the last five years.  This is significant for many reasons, not the least of which is that part of school financing is often allocated on a per pupil basis.  Fewer students means less money, which in turn, means fewer teachers, fewer programs, and reduced capital investments.  This could render many public schools even less competitive, further accelerating these enrollment declines.  The article points out that there are many factors responsible for the declining enrollments.  However, interestingly, in some areas, the steady rise and growing popularity of charter schools are contributing to these enrollment shifts.  Overall, this is a very sobering picture for many public school systems, which are in desperate need for solutions.

One Response to “School District Enrollments Falling, Compounding Fiscal Challenges”

1. Carlos D says:

   July 31, 2012 at 6:24 am

   Public education is in trouble because of the unions. The long and short of it is that salaries in New York state are too high. There are tens of thousands of unemployed teachers and more graduating each year. Yet salaries go up. They are not going up because teachers are being recruited away at higher pay, each district has hundreds of resumes, many Ivy League grads, of teachers seeking a position. Salaries rise because employed teachers that cannot get a higher paying job through normal market forces exert monopoly power through their union. Moreover, the high salaries, generous benefits and short hours make it an attractive job which has the effect of further increasing the supply of recently minted teachers. Charter schools are in a great position to compete as they can get great teachers at a fraction of the cost of a unionized teacher. If districts do not get their costs in line they will continue to lose market share. Finally I am troubled by the implicit support for unions in the post when you fail to include salary and benefits cuts as a possible response to funding cuts.

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