Across America, student enrollment in traditional public schools is plummeting to lows not seen in generations.
Yet many states, cities, and districts stubbornly cling to a bloated staffing and organizational model ill-suited to today’s realities.
We collected data on 9 of the 10 largest urban school districts and their states and found that policymakers have embraced funding models that insulate school districts from the fiscal implications of dwindling student enrollments — a risky divorce from prudent budgeting.
Even as enrollments fell, costs per student increased in New York City, Houston, San Diego, Dallas, Austin, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Antonio, and Los Angeles. 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).
Following these trends, the student-to-teacher ratio fell in Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Houston, and San Antonio because of declining enrollment.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
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Daniel DiSalvo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and professor of political science at the City College of New York-CUNY. Reade Ben is a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute.
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