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
"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. "
I dont quite understand the financial math here. The revenue is tax money, which is still there whether the student is in public or private school.
If a student leaves, the property tax money is the same, so the $ per pupil can go up. There may be some state and Federal money they lose ... but it still should work to the schools benefit on a $ per pupil basis.
The system is already starting to collapse in Delaware. The graduate rates hovers between 64% to 61%. Those stats don't even count the kids who drop out in 8th grade. It's pathetic.