The graph explains it. Many schools were built during and after the baby boom. And they tended to be built to last back then. But in spite of the fact that the population has more than doubled since then, American women are having fewer, if any, children.
A woman I work with explained it this way: all of her age-mates are either single or married with no plan for having any kids at all. Kids are expensive, and take away time from having fun.
The K-8 school I retired from used to have roughly 360 kids. Now it’s down to 250 kids and few kids show up for Kindergarten screening every year.
“all of her age-mates are either single or married with no plan for having any kids at all”
Don’t worry. They’ll all be replaced, and they will find themselves living out their lives alone in some old folks warehouse. The Replacements won’t vote to allocate much cash to those places either. Too White.
Populations that don’t reproduce...disappear.
You're right - I've completely forgotten about that.
The Catholic K-8 school I attended in the 60s had 800 students. They now have 160.