The drops in enrollment mean resources for schools have been stretched thin. If SPS were to consolidate, staffers argue, students might get better access to specialized programs, social workers, specialists, school counselors and nurses — resources that students have continuously requested in the last school year.
Learning loss and staff recruitment and retention continue to be the two most expensive categories according to Burbio, which collected data from 6,000 school districts on how they plan to allocate their ESSER III funds.
Nearly 80% of the schools that participated in a new survey reported vacancies while nearly all of the districts said their shortages are as bad or worse than last year.
"We're actually calling 2024-25 'the bloodletting,'" said Dr. Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. "Public education has not seen a right-sizing, fiscal cliff, whatever you want to call it, of this magnitude at any time in the past, including the last recession. I think it's going to be quite shocking."
More than half of the LGBTQ youth identified their schools as affirming spaces compared to less than four in 10 who said the same about their homes, according to a national survey.
Public charter school enrollment is climbing steadily just as enrollment in all other public schools slides in the opposite direction, a new report finds.
Prioritizing the whole child in meeting the needs of all learners is at the top of the agenda for these leaders. "We're maximizing every minute. And we're leaning into kids' interests," one says.
We must undertake a seismic restructuring of our education system if we’re to overcome these challenges. It can’t be about patching the cracks in the foundation, but about building a new foundation altogether.
