Amid the Republican-led push to expand parental educational choice, school choice vouchers are forcing administrators to address an already widespread issue: student enrollment.
West Virginia’s Kanawha County Schools, for instance, is seeing the effects of the state’s Hope Scholarship, which K12 students can use to pay private school tuition, homeschool curriculum and other eligible expenses.
WCHS ABC 8 reports significant hardships for West Virginia public schools.
“For the school system, it’s a significant drop in funds because they’re not getting that federal and local fund because the student’s not enrolled anymore,” one Kanawha County teacher told the news outlet.
Forecasts also predict potential decreases in public school enrollment in North Carolina. Carolina Demography, a non-partisan research unit at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told the State Board of Education in April to look out for enrollment drops in the next several years, according to EdNC.
A successful push for school choice
In Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has long supported school choice, officials are reporting more than 1.4 million students have used vouchers as of January. Public schools are expressing contrasting emotions.
“This year, between today and June 30, we have to make up that deficit of $2.5 million,” Flagler Schools Superintendent LaShakia Moore told FlaglerLive. The district is forecasting an enrollment decline of 3% by this fall.
Moore said the district is using its reserves, which are at 9% in a $155 million budget. Without the help of pandemic-era funding, Moore told the news outlet that layoffs might be inevitable.
“We don’t have those dollars,” Moore said. “And so we don’t have a means to build up the fund balance [that is, the reserve], other than to make cuts and reductions.
A report from Florida economists cites a surge in the state’s private school enrollment thanks to the vouchers, according to Wink News. The State Education Estimating Conference Report found that 2,813,213 students were enrolled in public schools during the 2024-25 school year. By 2029-30, that number is predicted to drop to around 2.7 million, a dip of more than 70,000.
Advice for leaders
As ESSER withdrawals continue forcing layoffs in public schools, education finance research organizations like Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab offer resources for superintendents looking to mitigate the effects of declining enrollment.
A recent webinar outlines everything leaders need to know to ensure they come out ahead going into the upcoming school year, including how to reduce labor costs, address school closures and redirect funds to improve outcomes.
Read District Administration’s latest coverage of how schools are addressing ESSER and enrollment-related budget deficits:
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