Empty Desks: The Policy Response to Declining Public School Enrollment

Food for thought! Maybe the recent mass illegal immigration/invasion across the southern border will fill class rooms again. Caution: satire.

The drop of enrollment was around 1.1 million between 2013 and 2023. As usual governments just keep throwing more money at the public school system. A well known waste of taxpayer money for many years.

If my wife and I were a parent of small children today we would probably enroll them in a private school of our choice or opt for home schooling.

Unfortunately, the Executive Summary of the article/report below is poorly or amateurishly written.

"In many parts of the country, enrollment in traditional public schools has fallen to its lowest point in decades. However, states, cities, and school districts have been slow to respond to the reality of empty desks. This report examines trends in school enrollment, focusing on several of America’s most populous cities, as well as the budgetary and staffing responses to those trends. It also examines the states where these large cities are located. ...
Between 2013 and 2023, public school enrollment fell nationally by 2% from 49.9 million to 48.8 million. Other studies have documented large declines in K–12 student enrollment in public schools at the state and district levels since the Covid-19 pandemic. However, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the number of public school teachers was 11% higher in 2021 (3.8 million) than in 2011 (3.4 million). Furthermore, NCES reports that public schools spent an average of $16,280 per pupil in 2020, an increase of 13% from 2010. Roughly 80% of school spending is on salaries and benefits for staff (teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, and so on). ..."

Empty Desks: The Policy Response to Declining Public School Enrollment | Manhattan Institute