They'll never collapse because they are just another form of public welfare jobs.
#2 reason they'll never go away ? Because of all the parents who know that schools are in trouble but *their* school is just wonderful. These parents don't read their children's textbooks or sit in their classes to see or hear the drivel that passes as academics.
Well, we can disagree about this, but many school districts are losing students, which creates a financial crisis, which in turn causes more students to leave, which in turn...
What drives the departures is a growing recognition of government school failure. I believe that if the system lost between 15% to 20% of its students that the system would go into a financial death spiral and be publicly delegitimized. The government school coalition of special interests simply can't adjust to declining top line revenue. The process has been highlighted in recent media coverage of Seattle, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Detroit schools. Detroit is a good illustration - lost about 11k students last year, which blew a $100+ hole in the budget. The school board tried to bridge the gap by reducing, among other things, teacher pay, which led to a strike, which led to another 25K students leaving. I believe at some point 15%-20% parents will finally get the gestalt of the overall situation and act. If that happens, the system completely collapses. FWIW