Posted on 06/08/2026 4:33:29 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The empty desks appearing across Colorado today are the delayed consequence of decisions made years ago by politicians, educators, and cultural elites.
Colorado colleges are bracing for what education experts call an “enrollment cliff.” Fewer high school graduates mean fewer college applicants, shrinking tuition revenue, budget cuts, mergers, and even campus closures.
The same phenomenon is unfolding nationwide. After years of warnings, the demographic reckoning has arrived.
According to recent Colorado education data, public school enrollment fell by more than 10,000 students this year, the state’s largest decline since the pandemic.
State officials point to a simple explanation: there are fewer children. Birth rates have been declining for years, and those missing children are now becoming missing students.
Many analysts trace the problem to the 2008 financial crisis. As economic uncertainty grew, Americans postponed marriage, delayed having children, or chose to have fewer children altogether. Eighteen years later, right on schedule, colleges are seeing the predictable consequences.
That explanation is correct, but incomplete.
The enrollment cliff itself was largely set in motion nearly two decades ago.
But instead of addressing the underlying causes of declining family formation, policymakers have spent the last twenty years making them worse.
Colorado provides a revealing case study.
In 2008, the median Denver-area home price was about a third of what it is today, $225,000 then and $610,000 today.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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Lots of families are leaving the leftist insanity.
It’s gonna be awesome.
Seems strange that Lefties create Utopias that they don’t want future generations to enjoy. They kill them in the womb instead. Weirdos.
10,000 is nothing. Colorado has 900,000 K-12 students.
I’m guessing the population of the elderly is increasing. So there are fewer young people to pay for the retirement of more old people. Good job, Socialists.
Also, more parents are homeschooling because they don’t want their kids exposed to leftist filth.
Nothing in the article mentioned the growing disconent with families who are just fed up with the National Education Labor Union... and how many have gone to teaching at HOME. Or in charter schools...
The public school system OVERALL sucks, particularly in this effed-up state of Colorado. Maybe parents are just getting sick of it, ya know?
If you don’t know much about this state, check out the news from Jefferson County, Colorado - the county I live in. *groan* The ENTIRE SCHOOL SYSTEM in Jefferson County is not just rife with pedos and s3x offenders, it’s not just CRAWLING with pedos and s3x offenders, it’s LOADED DOWN with pedos and s3x offenders - as though criminal freaks are prized as teachers and sports coaches, or something. (Note: I do not have any kids so I was late to the game and knew almost nothing about this until a few months ago.)
Also there is a total of 61 (that’s SIXTY-ONE!!) biological males competing against biological females in sports in the Jefferson County public schools.
Your tax dollars at work!!!
The left only cares about themselves. Children being sold into debt bondage, to pay for the debt they did not create, is of no concern to the left.
Most people pay in advance through SS taxes for their “retirement”. It is the various parasites that drain the system including illegals, disability frauds and others who make it especially financially unstable.
Most people pay in advance through SS taxes for their “retirement”. It is the various parasites that drain the system including illegals, disability frauds and others who make it especially financially unstable.
👍
The pic of the class comparison is a bit drastic and completely unrealistic. No kid in todays public school is sitting up straight and paying attention.
The pic of the class comparison is a bit drastic and completely unrealistic. No kid in todays public school is sitting up straight and paying attention.
I disagree. The article clearly stated those (though not mentioning unions directly):
The educational damage from prolonged school closures is still being measured. While graduation rates have recovered and even improved statistically, many students disengaged from traditional education during the lockdown years. Some shifted to homeschooling. Others moved to online alternatives. Some never fully reconnected with the educational system at all. Colorado continues to see growth in alternative education pathways while traditional enrollment declines.
There are NO black kids or Hispanic kids in that picture.
Colorado is completing it’s transition from red-state to purple-state-to blue-state to third-world one party third world $hithole.
I graduated in 1970 with 275 in my class. A few years later it was over 300. This year there were 141 with 57 per cent Yemeni. There is a local charter school with about 10 graduates. I was just commenting where are the students? due to immigration our town has gained about 4,000 people. One Friday evening, while in Wal-Mart, I didn’t hear a single person speak English.
Some of the reasons for that are the horrid job market that lasted from 2007 until 2015. The explosion in house prices (median first time home buyer was 30 or 31 in 2008.....its 40 today and the median home buyer is 56 now). When people don't have any kind of confidence in keeping their job, when they can't buy a house guess what they don't do.....if you said get married and start a family, you're right.
I've got an idea. Radically slash H1bs and OPTs. Deport all the illegal aliens en masse. Ban Blackrock and other financial institutions from buying residential real estate. Ban non resident aliens from buying residential real estate. Watch home prices become more affordable, companies to hire Americans - even if they have to bring back the job training programs they killed off a generation ago. Once all that demand is removed from the market, houses will become much more affordable again. With the lower corporate taxes, lower regulatory burdens and nice big honkin' tariffs, companies will hire a lot more Americans. Marriage rates and birth rates will magically improve.
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